Family Caregiver Support

There are many of you who know me and my story, but for those of you who don't, hello, my name is Taylor.

In the past, I have crowdfunded for my older sister, Kaitlyn, who had bravely faced a terminal cancer diagnosis for 3 years.

Previously, she needed financial assistance for things like wigs, medication, treatment costs, and to assist with cost of living.

She recently passed away from the crippling disease on October 18th. My family held a celebration of life for her just 5 days before my 29th birthday.

In late September, I flew to Alberta for what I knew to be the last time taking care of my sister. She had discovered the cancer had spread aggressively, and significantly, and asked me if I could come to help with appointments and with her two young kids.

3 days later, I was in Alberta, doing everything a sister and personal caregiver could. Cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids, and helping out with anything she or my dad asked me to do. Physically she was very limited, and declining rapidly, so there was caregiving of her, too.

In her last weeks she could not walk on her own. She needed 24 hour supervision. I did not sleep restfully in fear that she would have a seizure during the night from the brain radiation. She was exhausted, and so was I. But we did it, together.

I never thought in a million years that I would be the person to help her shower, and get ready, and dressed for the last time.

She was too young. And me and my younger sister were too young to watch it. We were supposed to grow old. Together.

The display photo for this fundraiser is the last photo I took of my sister and I.

This was in emergency, after she recieved a CT scan. She refused to look at it. I was curious so I asked the doctor to see. I stepped out of the room and to my utter disbelief he explained that she would only have a few weeks to a month left.

I went back into the room, unable to speak. We locked eyes, no words were needed. We both knew.

She was scared, in pain, had no idea what was coming next, but yet, she is smiling.

Kaitlyn died in a room surrounded by loved ones. She was held, dearly, until her last breath. She was 31 years young.

I knew financially that I needed help in order to afford to be there for the length of time required to take care of my family. I stayed for a full month after kaitlyns passing to assist with personal affairs, and help to make sure everything was still in order. I knew that after she passed that she would still want structure and stability for her kids. And so between friends, and almost my entire family on the east coast, we took care of each other.

After the service, everyone slowly started to fly home, until it was just me, dad, my uncle and my sisters kids.

I applied for family caregiver benefits through EI by recommendation of her doctors. After waiting just over a month, EI declined my application without opportunity for reconsideration. This is due to the fact that I did not have enough insurable work hours built up between my last claim, and this one.

I had previously successfully applied for family caregiver benefits over the summer months when Kaitlyn initially found out that her cancer had spread in her brain. I was approved. It was exactly what I needed.

Upon recieving a declined application for my 2nd attempt, An EI representative told me that I needed to have accumulated 420 insurable work hours, in a time period of 2 months, in order to qualify..

I feel a plethora of emotion.

Trying to navigate the grief of losing a sibling, while also trying to figure out how to repay the debt I've incurred while being away from my small business or any sort of steady income is not what I had envisioned for my life at all.

I am devastated.

I thought to myself, 'how on earth could I possibly bare this combination of painful things', and the answer is, by asking for help.

I have selflessly given literally every ounce of energy, and time to my family over the last few months. I care about them so much and I just want to see them be happy and healthy.

And now it's time to take care of myself by asking for help when I know that I need it.

This fundraiser is to help cover the costs of living while I reposition myself into life on Vancouver Island. It will help me to navigate what is next for me and my small business. It is also to help pay back the debt I've built up by borrowing money from others close to me in order to afford to be gone from home for so long.

If you have the opportunity to help me, I would greatly appreciate that. If you can't, please share this fundraiser, so that I can get back on my feet.

Thank you for being here and supporting me ♡

All my love,

Taylor Doyle