Hello, my name is Valerie Smith, daughter of Yolanda Dominguez. My brother, Raul (BJ) Dominguez, and I are starting this fund for our mother, who is currently fighting for strength every day due to both liver cancer and end-stage liver cirrhosis. Every day is a struggle for her and watching her push through fair days, bad days, and very bad days is very hard to watch. As you can imagine, with two different debilitating medical issues, she requires many procedures, tests, hospital stays, and medications, which are steadily rising in out-of-pocket costs as her visits become frequent. One of her medications is close to $4k, which makes her out-of-pocket cost very high.

To give you some background, she has had to fight bladder cancer, kidney cancer, and now liver cancer/cirrhosis even though she does not have any of the high-risk factors. She has never smoked and rarely drinks alcoholic beverages, and she survives on a small fixed income. My family has struggled for many years with very serious illnesses. First, it was my father who received a scary serious diagnosis in his early 20s and as a result was rejected for life insurance many times. We ask ourselves, do any of us need life insurance in our early 20s? I myself thought no, but have quickly learned you must get your life insurance as soon as you become an adult because you never know what's around the corner, health-wise. Dad fought until age 65 when he was taken from us, but he too had very high medical costs which did not allow my parents to save much for retirement.

Our mother is a very giving person and often thinks of others more than herself. However, as she is currently in the fight of her life, we are reaching out to ease the financial burden so she can concentrate on staying as healthy and strong as she can rather than being weighed down by the concern of how she will pay for all these medical costs.

We not only would appreciate any financial support you can give but even more importantly sending prayers and good thoughts would be very much appreciated.