Help Stephanie Come Home and Fight Lymphoma!

Update:

With a heavy heart, we wanted to share an update with you. Last night, with family by her side, Stephanie peacefully left us on October 2, 2023. We are so grateful for all the love, support and generous donations directed towards making her final wish come true.

We will be redirecting these funds to offset medical costs that the family has had to endure during this past year. Your love and contributions mean more to us than you will ever know. Thank you again.

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Stephanie Murakami needs your help in her fight against lymphoma. Stephanie, a loving mother and class of 1993 Punahou grad, has dedicated the past 25 years of her life to educating children - most recently as a speech pathologist at Nanaikapono Elementary and Waianae Elementary.

In 2019, Stephanie was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Since then, her cancer journey has been a rollercoaster of hope and heartache. She’s been a warrior through it all, but she needs your support now more than ever.

In May of 2023, Stephanie and her mother made the journey to begin CAR-T cell therapy at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. She endured many rounds of chemotherapy and treatments, but due to health complications, she was unable to complete her full CAR-T cell therapy. Then a devastating life threatening setback occurred when she contracted necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating bacteria) which affected her chest along with her lungs. Stephanie, being the warrior she is…fought back and endured the multiple surgeries and skin grafts and is still going through treatments to combat the infection. This is impacting the ability to treat the lymphoma and she was just informed that they have run out of alternatives.

During her time in Seattle, Stephanie missed her daughter Ashley’s Punahou HS graduation this past summer as well as Ashley’s first day at LMU in LA as a freshman. She also missed Chloe’s first day of 8th grade at Punahou and her hula performances and Rose Bowl practices. She has been away from her daughters for 150 days and now she would like to return home and be with her family to help her heal.

Stephanie has been through so much and she has been fighting with more toughness than anyone we know. We are all an army who love and support her. Steph and her family have never asked for help throughout this whole ordeal, and so many of us have felt we wanted to do more to help. Here is our chance.

Stephanie needs to get home to Oahu from Seattle as soon as possible to be back home with her family where she belongs. But she is unable to take a commercial flight due to her current condition, she needs to take a private medical charter flight. The flight is going to cost $100,000. Anything you can donate will help alleviate the cost for Stephanie and her family, and can also assist with medical expenses.

Stephanie has selflessly dedicated the last 25 years of her life to educating children and being a mentor, teacher and the biggest cheerleader for children who are the most vulnerable and in need of help. And it is now our time to take care of her.

Please pray with us for her recovery and donate if you can!

Note: This fundraiser has been setup by Lori Wachi and friends, best friend of Stephanie Murakami. Beneficiary is Derek Lau, Stephanie's brother, who is helping to manage funds that will be used to offset medical costs for Stephanie.