Help Laura Enjoy Her Remaining Time

7 years ago, we were able to get a wheel chair for Laura. Today, we want to raise money to bring some joy and financial relief as she confronts the hardest season of her life. She has been diagnosed with stage four cancer and has been given only a few more months to live.

Laura is one of the strongest and smartest person I have ever met. She is a living miracle who has faced innumerable health challenges starting at the young age of one. After she had started standing up, her mom realized there was something odd in Laura's demeanor. When running some medical exams, it was discovered that Laura had a tumor on her spine. The doctors successfully operated on her to save her, but it left her a paraplegic in a wheel chair with extreme scoliosis (90 degrees of curvature) for the rest of her life.

However, a wheelchair and extreme scoliosis did not slow Laura down. Before she graduated with honors at the Industrial University of Colombia, she was awarded the opportunity to be an interchange student at the University of Oklahoma with all expenses paid. She was later given a Fulbright scholarship to get her Master's degree at the Southern Illinois University. After getting her Master's, she went on to Illinois University to work on her doctorate, where she is right now, thanks to another scholarship. She has always been a hard worker who has taught English and supported important research projects. This year she was offered to develop a curriculum instruction class for a group of international students and she got her postdoctoral project approved.

Unfortunately, she had to decline both opportunities. Laura’s back issues started to catch up to her. The extreme curvature of the spine was crushing her heart and lungs slowly every day. To save her life, the doctors performed a strenuous 10 hour spinal fusion that inserted metal rods throughout her spine to hold her back up. Laura has had several other procedures to help her deal with extreme pain. This year she was diagnosed with stage four cancer in her kidney and within a few months it has rapidly spread in her brain and other parts of her body.

Laura is running out of time and our hope is that she can rest knowing that her financial expenses are covered. She desires to stay in the United States at her home, with her three cats, her boyfriend, her mom and everything else she has built in this country for the last ten years. She doesn’t think this will be possible as she will be unable to cover her personal expenses without being able to work anymore. Some things that Laura would like to do before her time is up: She would like to visit Super Mario World . She would like to visit Colombia one more time and spend the rest of her days at her house in Illinois with her cats, boyfriend and mom.

Please consider to donate and if you are unable to do so, please share this link and let’s get it to as many people as possible.