Help Me Live My Limited Life to the Fullest

Hi, my name is Mio.

In September 2020, I was diagnosed with inoperable and incurable advanced pancreatic cancer.

 

At the time, the prognosis I was given was: “Maybe a year… maybe more… maybe less.”

 

Pancreatic cancer is known to be a notoriously difficult cancer to treat. 7% of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer make it to a year. Even less make it to five years.

 

This has been paradigm shifting: My life is not what I thought it would be, nor would it be the same for my husband, my mother and my loved ones.

 

It's also been made all that more complicated with the pandemic... While things are continuing to evolve, I do really hope that I will continue to remain in good enough health to be able to do some things it has been impossible to do in lockdown.

 

It's been about a year now since my diagnosis and while there is definitely a part of me that's totally in disbelief that I'm still here, there are also some realities that I also feel I need to address...

 

Here’s where I need your help:
I just learned recently that in order to be able to have the second line of the treatment option to be available to me, I will need to be able to have $3,000 per treatment (twice a month) to be able to have access to one of the chemotherapy drugs the oncologists would like to use for treatment. At this moment, this is not within our means to be able to do. If and when my current treatment may cease to work, my second best chance to keep going will not be available to me. I am hoping to be able to raise funds to make this treatment possible for me.

My husband and I are now down to a single income. While with much generosity of some incredibly loving folks, we have been able to make our day-to-day ends meet, but as time goes on, I do worry about our current finances.

 

 

It's also very important for me to know that my husband would have a financial cushion once I’m gone, too. As a small business owner, I am hoping it would be possible for him to take whatever time he may need when he may need it.

 

Additionally... my mother, whom I absolutely love and adore to bits, lives in Japan (I live in Toronto, Canada). When the time comes for her to be with me here, I am hoping that there won't be any financial constraints to be an issue to get her here.

 

 

And finally, while I still have time and my relative health, it would just be great to have time to spend time, maybe cross off extra bucket list items and have experiences with my husband, Joe. Having some extra funds will allow us to do these things.

 

Also, if it’s possible to be able to have as many people as possible be aware of this campaign, I’m hoping it will also raise awareness and funds for The Stop a local community organization committed to providing access to healthy foods with dignity and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre whose work helps to support and treat folks like me with cancer day in and day out… even through the difficulties of this pandemic.

 

If you’d like to learn more about me and my journey, please feel free to visit my YouTube channel: 
My Real Life Stuff 101 

 

If you can share this campaign, contribute, subscribe to the YouTube channel, send good thoughts our way... every little thing would make a big difference for us.

 

Thank you so so much.

 

With love,

Mio