Help Malu Beat Cancer!
Donation protected
Hi everyone,
On behalf of Malu’s family, I have created this gofundme to spread awareness and help her family during this time of need. Below you will find Malu’s journey described by Malu’s daughter, Joy. This family has done so much good for the world and it breaks my heart that Malu is suffering. She is an incredibly strong woman and even during this time she is trying her best to stay hopeful but her treatments have been extremely painful and hard to manage. Each day of chemo has become its own challenge but if you can please take the time to read and donate if you can because anything helps. Thank you so much for taking the time to support Malu on her journey.❤️
Hello, my name is Joy and we started this page for my mom, Malu, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. My mom emigrated from the Philippines when she was 18 first stopping by in Chicago and eventually making it to Los Angeles. She met my dad, Nhel, in a bowling alley quite a few years later and they got married in 1988. They had their first child, me, in 1989 and shortly followed with my brother, Joseph, in 1990. She worked with UCLA in the department of surgery liver and kidney transplant and worked her way up from fund manager to director. She retired from UCLA in 2016 after 22 years. My mom, however, would not stay retired for long. She would end up opening up an assisted living facility that she ran from 2016 through 2021. While it did not profit as much as she would have liked, the ability to help others that needed it made her stay. She closed down due to the property manager not renewing their lease, however she would eventually find a new home with Studio Picture Vehicles where she currently works. For those that don’t know, my mom loves to keep busy. She is incredibly hard working and will never leave a problem unsolved. Growing up she was strict but fair and always managed to get her point across. While my dad was geared more towards a straight forward approach to raise my brother and me. My mom came up with creative ways to instill our morals and created life lessons for us to learn from. From teaching us how to clean our rooms by telling us she was going to throw our toys away, which she did by putting all our toys into trash bags and storing them in the garage only to lead us to discover them years later, to teaching us how to share by a bittersweet Krispy Kreme punishment, it’s a long story that requires many explanations and resulted in only once a year visits to said donut establishment. She leads my brother and I to always think about our decisions by first asking, “If I make this decision, what will Mom think?” Fast forward to New Year 2023. My mom mentioned very casually that she felt a lump in her breast. I grew up learning the importance of self-checks and asked my mom all the usual questions. “Does it hurt? Does it move? Is it tender? Did you notice it before? Etc.” Prior to this, she was having her regular mammograms so it was a surprise that she would find something like this. Her primary care doctor recommended she get a mammogram to get a better idea of what was going on. It was concluded that it was not a cyst, like originally thought, but a mass. At the end February she got a biopsy to determine exactly what it was. Within the week we would find that it was positive for cancer. We were shocked as our family has no history of breast cancer that runs on either side. It turned out the cancer was extremely aggressive and the mass was growing very quickly with the potential to spread through her body since it seemed like it was in her lymph nodes. Within the weeks between her initial biopsy and her surgery the mass would more than double in size. Things happened very quickly. She met with her surgical oncologist, plastic surgeon and medical oncologist within one month of finding out the result of the biopsy. By the beginning of April she had the first step in her series of two surgeries. She received a mastectomy of her left breast. She was lucky enough that it did not spread any further, which surprised her doctors, and she came back negative for genetic testing, which would clear my brother and me from being high risk at having cancer. She only had to spend one night in recovery and was able to come home the following morning. She was bedridden for the first week and I played nurse to make sure that she was getting her pain medication and antibiotics. Luckily, my mom would not need radiation as the cancer did not spread, nor was there any left behind that could potentially come back. A couple of weeks ago she had her first of 3 rounds of chemotherapy. It took quite a toll on my mom’s body and left her with body aches for about 5 days. She just shaved her head a few days ago because her hair was starting to fall out. She is going to have her second round of chemo tomorrow (within writing this). I cannot imagine a world right now without my mom. She is the main breadwinner in our household. My dad is also retired from UCLA, but on permanent disability. My brother no longer lives with us but helps out as much as he can. I am the only one that lives with my parents, along with our 3 dogs. Since we have started this journey my mom has been staying home and only working when she feels she is strong enough. In a way she has been more retired now since leaving UCLA. We can make ends meet thanks to the generosity of my mom’s siblings, family and friends. I currently work full time and contribute my share, but I am not able to be home to help my mom all the time. After her chemotherapy treatments are complete, she is going to have a more invasive reconstructive surgery that will keep her in the hospital for at least 3 days. My aunts, who have been helping us since April, will be leaving to go back home to Canada. They will not be here for her surgery. We anticipate that she will be out of work until at least the end of the year. A couple of years ago we almost lost our home. While we were able to barely navigate ourselves out of that situation, I suddenly felt that bubble reinflate. So, I ask our family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, strangers to please offer what you can. The funds that are generously given will go towards any out-of-pocket expenses, including treatments, gas, wigs, scarves, copays, medications, etc. We don’t expect much but anything that is given we will be grateful for. Thank you in advance and if you are not able to give that is okay. I appreciate you taking the time to read.
On behalf of Malu’s family, I have created this gofundme to spread awareness and help her family during this time of need. Below you will find Malu’s journey described by Malu’s daughter, Joy. This family has done so much good for the world and it breaks my heart that Malu is suffering. She is an incredibly strong woman and even during this time she is trying her best to stay hopeful but her treatments have been extremely painful and hard to manage. Each day of chemo has become its own challenge but if you can please take the time to read and donate if you can because anything helps. Thank you so much for taking the time to support Malu on her journey.❤️
Hello, my name is Joy and we started this page for my mom, Malu, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. My mom emigrated from the Philippines when she was 18 first stopping by in Chicago and eventually making it to Los Angeles. She met my dad, Nhel, in a bowling alley quite a few years later and they got married in 1988. They had their first child, me, in 1989 and shortly followed with my brother, Joseph, in 1990. She worked with UCLA in the department of surgery liver and kidney transplant and worked her way up from fund manager to director. She retired from UCLA in 2016 after 22 years. My mom, however, would not stay retired for long. She would end up opening up an assisted living facility that she ran from 2016 through 2021. While it did not profit as much as she would have liked, the ability to help others that needed it made her stay. She closed down due to the property manager not renewing their lease, however she would eventually find a new home with Studio Picture Vehicles where she currently works. For those that don’t know, my mom loves to keep busy. She is incredibly hard working and will never leave a problem unsolved. Growing up she was strict but fair and always managed to get her point across. While my dad was geared more towards a straight forward approach to raise my brother and me. My mom came up with creative ways to instill our morals and created life lessons for us to learn from. From teaching us how to clean our rooms by telling us she was going to throw our toys away, which she did by putting all our toys into trash bags and storing them in the garage only to lead us to discover them years later, to teaching us how to share by a bittersweet Krispy Kreme punishment, it’s a long story that requires many explanations and resulted in only once a year visits to said donut establishment. She leads my brother and I to always think about our decisions by first asking, “If I make this decision, what will Mom think?” Fast forward to New Year 2023. My mom mentioned very casually that she felt a lump in her breast. I grew up learning the importance of self-checks and asked my mom all the usual questions. “Does it hurt? Does it move? Is it tender? Did you notice it before? Etc.” Prior to this, she was having her regular mammograms so it was a surprise that she would find something like this. Her primary care doctor recommended she get a mammogram to get a better idea of what was going on. It was concluded that it was not a cyst, like originally thought, but a mass. At the end February she got a biopsy to determine exactly what it was. Within the week we would find that it was positive for cancer. We were shocked as our family has no history of breast cancer that runs on either side. It turned out the cancer was extremely aggressive and the mass was growing very quickly with the potential to spread through her body since it seemed like it was in her lymph nodes. Within the weeks between her initial biopsy and her surgery the mass would more than double in size. Things happened very quickly. She met with her surgical oncologist, plastic surgeon and medical oncologist within one month of finding out the result of the biopsy. By the beginning of April she had the first step in her series of two surgeries. She received a mastectomy of her left breast. She was lucky enough that it did not spread any further, which surprised her doctors, and she came back negative for genetic testing, which would clear my brother and me from being high risk at having cancer. She only had to spend one night in recovery and was able to come home the following morning. She was bedridden for the first week and I played nurse to make sure that she was getting her pain medication and antibiotics. Luckily, my mom would not need radiation as the cancer did not spread, nor was there any left behind that could potentially come back. A couple of weeks ago she had her first of 3 rounds of chemotherapy. It took quite a toll on my mom’s body and left her with body aches for about 5 days. She just shaved her head a few days ago because her hair was starting to fall out. She is going to have her second round of chemo tomorrow (within writing this). I cannot imagine a world right now without my mom. She is the main breadwinner in our household. My dad is also retired from UCLA, but on permanent disability. My brother no longer lives with us but helps out as much as he can. I am the only one that lives with my parents, along with our 3 dogs. Since we have started this journey my mom has been staying home and only working when she feels she is strong enough. In a way she has been more retired now since leaving UCLA. We can make ends meet thanks to the generosity of my mom’s siblings, family and friends. I currently work full time and contribute my share, but I am not able to be home to help my mom all the time. After her chemotherapy treatments are complete, she is going to have a more invasive reconstructive surgery that will keep her in the hospital for at least 3 days. My aunts, who have been helping us since April, will be leaving to go back home to Canada. They will not be here for her surgery. We anticipate that she will be out of work until at least the end of the year. A couple of years ago we almost lost our home. While we were able to barely navigate ourselves out of that situation, I suddenly felt that bubble reinflate. So, I ask our family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, strangers to please offer what you can. The funds that are generously given will go towards any out-of-pocket expenses, including treatments, gas, wigs, scarves, copays, medications, etc. We don’t expect much but anything that is given we will be grateful for. Thank you in advance and if you are not able to give that is okay. I appreciate you taking the time to read.
Organizer and beneficiary
Tammy Fritz
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
Paraluman Tolentino
Beneficiary