My mom has been a fighter her entire life — even when life never gave her a fair one.

At just 30 years old, she was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis. What most people don’t realize is that this isn’t just “joint pain” — it’s a lifelong autoimmune disease that causes constant inflammation, chronic pain, fatigue, and physical limitations. For over 27 years, she has lived with daily pain, reduced mobility, and ongoing medical treatments — yet she never let it define who she was. She continued working, raising her family, and putting everyone else first, even on the days she could barely move.

In 2020, her health took another devastating turn when she contracted COVID-19, which led to a stroke. As a result, she lost vision in one eye permanently. This changed her independence, her confidence, and her quality of life — but again, she adapted, pushed forward, and kept going.

After years of loyalty to the same employer, her declining health began to make regular work impossible. In 2023, after multiple medical appointments, worsening symptoms, and the discovery of a blood disorder causing dangerous blood clots, she was terminated from her job for being “too sick for company needs.” Shortly after, she was forced onto long-term disability not by choice, but by necessity simply to survive medically and financially.

Just when our family thought things couldn’t get harder, everything changed again.

On December 23, 2025, my mom received the most devastating news of her life:

She was diagnosed with two different types of cancer, both growing at the same time and spreading aggressively throughout her body.

Doctors are now preparing for an extremely invasive, high-risk surgery that will involve the removal of five organs in an attempt to save her life. This surgery alone will be physically traumatic, but the recovery will be even harder. Because of her pre-existing rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune condition, vision loss, and overall health complications, doctors estimate she will need anywhere from 2 to 8 months of private care during recovery.

Unfortunately, this level of care is not covered by long-term disability, and her income and savings simply cannot support the cost of private nursing care, mobility support, rehabilitation, transportation, and daily living assistance. What should be a time of healing has become a time of overwhelming stress, fear, and financial uncertainty for our entire family.

We created this GoFundMe not because it’s easy to ask for help — but because we have no other option.

Every donation will go toward:

• Private home care and nursing support

• Post-surgery rehabilitation

• Medical transportation

• Mobility and accessibility support

• Daily living assistance

• Basic living expenses during recovery

• Supporting her dignity and quality of life during treatment

If you’ve ever met my mom, you know she’s the type of person who gives without asking, helps without expecting, and loves without limits. She has always been the strong one for everyone else and now, for the first time, she needs others to be strong for her.

If you’re able to donate, we are deeply grateful.

If you can’t, a share is just as powerful.

Even a message, comment, or prayer means more than you know.

Thank you for taking the time to read her story.

Thank you for caring.

Thank you for helping us give her the care, dignity, and support she deserves during the hardest fight of her life.

With love and gratitude,

Matthew Tod