My name is Sivasa, and this GoFundMe is to raise $10,000.00 USD for my Dad’s care. Allow me to share his journey.

My Dad’s name is Palemene Laupati. He is a father of three, a grandfather of three, a United States Army veteran, an American Samoa native, and a man of God. In his youth, he played rugby, American football, and once paddled in the outrigger races for his village. These days Dad continues to walk at least 1 – 3 miles a day but earlier in life, he was a runner. He participated in the Bay to Breakers Race for 12 years, worked as an assembly line worker for more than 40 years, served as a church elder, a deacon, and sang in various church choirs in Samoa and in the United States. These days, he enjoys watching more sports than he played, sweet pastries, and spending time laughing with his grandchildren.

My Dad was living on the islands of Hawaii and American Samoa for several years. While he was away, he learned that he was a Grandfather and made the decision to pack it all up and return to the United States in late 2021. The reunion was wonderful; having never met her grandfather, his granddaughter Meleane reached over to him, hugged him and sat with him for what seemed like hours. No tears, no fits, just pure love.

That same year, only two months after that beautiful reunion, my brother Hartman took Dad to the ER after hearing him coughing all night. The x-rays initially showed that he had pneumonia but they were called back shortly after to hear that word: cancer. My brother called to share the news with me, and it was unlike anything that we could muster in any language to describe. I felt gutted. I thought, “We just got him back! And now, THIS?!”

I was in grad school, and I made the decision to move back to the Bay Area from Southern California to help care for my Dad. I took over Dad’s care, and we were hopeful. Chemotherapy was the option we decided to take. I asked my dad what his goal was moving forward, and he told me, “I want to see my granddaughter graduate.” Dad has been going non-stop, many times against himself, to do what is necessary to meet that goal. He walked a 5K each day and sometimes would even walk six miles because he was determined to beat this cancer on his own terms.

In 2023, he slowed down a step. The cancer spread to his brain and for the first time in his life, he was looking at brain surgery. One surgeon told us, with no compassion, “yeah, if I do this surgery on your dad there is a huge chance that he will die on the surgery table”. It was only by God’s grace that my brother Hartman and I did not pummel him there. We knew Dad could do it, but we had to find people that knew it, too. We moved his care to the VA where a veteran surgeon said with a hopeful courage, “I am confident that my team and I can remove this tumor.” In February of 2023, Dad successfully made it through the 13-hour surgery. He defied the odds again and pushed through.

With all the hurdles he’s managed to leap, all the surgery and chemotherapy and radiation therapy have slowly taken their toll. We made the decision, however, to do what we can to make his wish come true.

We were introduced to alkaline water. Studies show that cancer has a hard time living in an alkaline environment. We already give him 9.5+ pH level water but it has been shown that the healing through alkaline water is in the higher levels of pH, around 11.5 pH. This water is used in cancer treatment centers around the world and it made me think, “Why is this water not readily available to us now?” Aside from that, professional athletes use this water to help in their performance and general health so there has to be something to this. I have found a community of people that have shared their testimonies of how this water has aided in their healing and some have shown that this water helped them beat cancer altogether. Having this water alongside a healthy lifestyle has shown cancer markers in patients go down drastically, and look, I have to try.

This GoFundMe is to raise $10,000.00 to purchase a water filter for our home, and a water ionizer machine to be attached to that for our Dad to drink. This water, paired with prayers of faith, his fitness, healthy eating, and chemotherapy, will be what I can give to him to help him see his granddaughter graduate.

“But Vasa, have you tried …”

We have tried to get Dad to those elite cancer clinics that offer lifesaving treatments even for late-stage cancer patients like my Dad – they are all out of pocket payments of several hundreds of thousands of dollars. They take NO insurance. One session with those clinics is a down payment for a house.

We have gone to the naturopathic physicians. While they have been helpful, they too point to the measures I already made with a lifestyle my Dad is already living. They also take NO insurance.

All county, state, and federal resources point to palliative care and my Dad is not there yet.

“So you’re looking at super charged … WATER?” Yes. I truly believe that these devices can give Dad more years of health and by doing something he already does now, and many of us can do more of: Drinking good, clean water. At the moment, Dad is drinking alkaline water at 9.5+ pH but that’s the highest that is available to us. Cancer is shown to have a difficult time living in alkaline environments, so this water is our chance to help him heal even more.

There are many who look down on this and many have voiced their opinions on what sounds like a scam. I understand how this can sound, I was a skeptic as well. There is another reality: every 14-21 days, my dad gets radioactive, toxic medicine injected into his veins to help kill the cancer that is spreading throughout his body. The United States has some of the most cases of heart-related illnesses due to obesity brought on by food and drink designed to make us FEEL better but is also killing us. Both chemo and an unhealthy lifestyle are poisonous, so I don’t think that drinking “super charged water” is so bad.

The $10,000 will cover the purchase and installation of a water filter to clean the sink water to make it drinkable and purchase a Kangen Water Machine to ionize the water. Any funds that remain will go to my Dad’s care (food, vitamins, toiletries, clothes, etc.). My family and I are blessed with the privilege of caring for our dad and these devices reflect our continued commitment to try everything within our means, with your assistance, to care for Dad.

Thank you for your help and thank you for any donation you are able to give. Please be sure to share this with your loved ones. Help us to secure the best quality of life possible for Dad. Help us get Dad to see all his grandchildren grow.