Emma's Fight Against Lymphoma...

On December 7, 2022, my 17-year-old niece, Emma, was suddenly diagnosed with Primary Mediastinal Large B-Cell Lymphoma.

My niece is such a beautiful soul. Emma is sweet, kind, compassionate, quick-whitted and brings so much joy to the world. She's also a very hard-working, intelligent young woman, who is very motivated and ambitious and has been since she was little. She graduated from RL Graham on the honor roll and was valedictorian. She then went on to graduate from Keswick High, again on the honor roll! She obtained early acceptance into York University to study Psychology (in French) with dreams of becoming a children's clinical psychologist.

Emma started at York University in September and was doing exceptionally well in her classes. She was then told that due to her diagnosis and treatments, she'd likely have to drop out of her classes and loose her first semester that she had already completed, which was heartbreaking! She also would not be able to return to her part-time job at a local doctor’s office, which was also very devastating to her as she truly loved her job, the patients, and her co-workers.

I can’t imagine what it must like for a young woman with so many dreams and aspirations to have her whole life decimated in the span of one day. She went from a normal, healthy young woman who played soccer all summer and was now a university student, excelling in all her classes, working part-time to pay for her education and enjoying life as any young woman should at her age. Then one day she randomly fainted and woke up to a cancer diagnosis, being told she’ll need to leave her job and her studies, she’ll lose all her hair and just to add icing on the cake, kids may not be an option due to her treatments.

This was the worst week of her life. Crushing…. Devastating…

You would think this would knock her down, but not our Emma. In addition to all of the above, she is strong!! She’s a fighter!! Emma has decided that cancer is not going to make her dreams stop. She’s going to take this cancer down while continuing with her dreams and show this cancer that she’s boss!!

That’s where we need your help. Emma desperately wants to continue with her studies. With not being able to return to work, and her parent’s already covering a bunch of uncovered medical expenses, Emma is not able to pay for things that she needs to continue with her studies.

That’s why we are reaching out to you all for help. Emma is so stressed out about how she will pay for her commuting expenses to be able to continue with her studies without her part-time job. We’d like to raise enough funds for Emma to: maintain her car for 12 months (car insurance and gas); purchase a wig; and, help with any uncovered, ancillary medical expenses. so that she can continue with her studies, without financial stress and just take the time needed to attend her treatments, focus on her health and get well!

Any support you can give, is hugely appreciated.