Hello! I would like to share my story with you…

Hi, my name is Marika and I’m 29 years old. From the bottom of my heart, I’m asking you today for help in the hardest battle of my life – the fight for my health, my life, and my future.

I’m originally from Poznań, Poland, but for the past nine years I’ve been living in the United Kingdom with my beloved family. Until my health allowed it, I have worked alongside my fiancé in a car repair workshop, fixing accident-damaged vehicles. I did start out by helping in the paint shop, and over time this passion turned into a profession – I was independently repairing and preparing cars for painting. It was hard physical work, but it gave me a huge sense of joy and fulfillment.

Unfortunately, life can change in an instant. Like everything did.

After some automotive industry slowdown, my fiancé and I decided to take new jobs in the aerospace industry – manufacturing GPS antennas for the defense sector. It was highly regulated sector but our requests for proper respiratory protection were ignored for months! Soon my health began to decline – frequent nosebleeds, severe pain, damage to my palate, breathing difficulties and problems with speech.

At first, doctors treated it as sinusitis. I was passed from one doctor to another, prescribed antibiotic after antibiotic with no improvement. Only private diagnostics (CT scan, biopsy, ENT consultation) finally gave me an answer.

Sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma (SNSCC)

This is an extremely rare and aggressive form of cancer – affecting only 1 in 100,000 people per year.

In my case, it’s a squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal and paranasal sinuses that has developed within my sinuses and palate. Its location causes immense pain every day.

What’s more, this type of cancer rarely shows the HPV marker – the p16 expression is present in only about 12.7% of patients. Sadly, my case is one of the harder ones.

What my daily life looks like now

• The disease is progressing – I survive thanks to strong painkillers, including morphine.

• I often lose my voice and communicate with gestures because every sound hurts.

• I’m no longer able to eat normally – every meal is painful.

• I’m now being fed through a stomach tube.

• On September 29th I began chemotherapy, after undergoing kidney function tests with a radioactive marker to determine a safe dose.

• I already have a port implanted for medication delivery – a painful but necessary procedure.

If the treatment doesn’t work, I will face extensive reconstructive facial surgery.

Why I’m asking for help

I can no longer work. The entire financial burden of our household has fallen on my fiancé. We’re facing enormous expenses:

Private consultations

Specialized diet

Travel to hospitals

Hygiene products and care

Removal(my notice until 15/10)

The illness has taken my health, my strength, and my normal life. We even had to give up our home due to costs. But it hasn’t taken my hope.

I want to live. I want to go back to work, to the people I love. I want to laugh, speak, and eat without pain. I fight every day – for my life, for myself, for the future.

Every bit of help – even the smallest – means the world to me.

Thank you to everyone who stands by me, supports me with kind words, donations, or simply your presence. It’s because of you that I’m still holding on, even on the days when I feel like giving up…

From the bottom of my heart – thank you.

❤️ Marika