We are raising funds in honor of Doris Buvelot-Harkins, who passed February 25th, 2023 at the age of 36 in Walnut Creek, California, after a four-year battle with Synovial Sarcoma.

Before her passing, Doris requested an organization be founded where her legacy of generosity and love of serving others would be able to continue.

The Doris Buvelot-Harkins Sarcoma Foundation was created to fulfill Doris's final wish to provide funding to organizations such as the UCSF School of Medicine. She dreamed of a day when Synovial Sarcoma would no longer be a death sentence. Currently, the survival rate is less than 20% in the first five years once the disease has spread beyond the initial tumor. We want to see her dream come true by funding research for treatment, and perhaps one day a cure.

Doris was diagnosed in early 2019 with Synovial Sarcoma after a tumor was found in her right leg. After intense chemotherapy, radiation, and eventually surgery to remove the remaining portions of the tumor, Doris was believed to have gone into remission. Unfortunately, nine months later that joy was quickly overtaken by dread as her cancer had returned and had spread to her lungs. In the following two years, Doris would go through two major operations to remove large portions of her lung that the cancer had attacked as well as a smaller procedure to try and slow the progression of the tumors’ growth. The surgeries and procedures bought her little time, and she had to resume chemotherapy. Towards the end of 2022, the chemo treatments stopped working. Doris chose to go through another round of radiation to buy her more time so she could participate in a clinical trial in a last-ditch effort to save her life. During the clinical trial, it was discovered that the cancer had metastasized in her spine and liver. Three weeks after starting the clinical trial and a month after her 36th birthday, her health deteriorated to the point where she was placed in comfort care. Family and friends were able to say their last goodbyes, and she passed with her husband holding her hand.

Throughout her ordeal, her care teams at UCSF Medical Center, Stanford Hospital, and John Muir Regional Hospital worked tirelessly to try and save her young life.

Doris was a bright light in this world. She was known to friends, family, patients, and co-workers as someone with a warm, loving, and generous heart. Doris channeled her compassion into her career as a pediatric nurse. During the less intense periods of her treatment, she continued to work and spread her kindness to those in need. In her short life, she touched so many, having had a positive impact on friends and strangers alike. Doris was also an inspiration with her sheer persistence to accomplish her goals and make her dreams come true. Her resilience and grit were truly impressive.

In addition to her passion for nursing, Doris also dreamed of building a family of her own. In 2017, Doris met the man of her dreams. They were engaged shortly after she completed her first round of chemo and radiation, eventually marrying in a beautiful ceremony in 2021. Doris wanted to be a mother more than anything, and unfortunately, that was one of many dreams taken from her by cancer.

While Doris is now with us only in spirit, we believe the best way to allow her legacy to live on is to support the organizations that are working towards finding a cure for the malicious disease that took her life.

All donation proceeds will go directly towards the research of Synovial Sarcoma. A 501C3 application has been filed with the IRS, as well as incorporations sent to the California Secretary of State to establish The Doris Buvelot-Harkins Sarcoma Foundation. This GoFundMe is a temporary location for donations to be made until the official foundation website is completed.

Thank you for supporting Doris’s memory by contributing towards her foundation so that another beautiful soul is not prematurely taken from this earth.