Jacqui's Medical Fund

Natalie Masson is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Jacqui Hoang.

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At just 26 years old, my cousin Jacqui discovered that she had stage 4 colon cancer that had metastasized to her liver. Her doctors told her that while her cancer was very advanced, it might be curable. She kept a strong and optimistic outlook as she went through two months of chemotherapy followed by extensive surgery to remove her colon, her gall bladder and half of her liver. After taking a month to recover from surgery, she began chemotherapy again to hopefully eradicate any remaining cancer. On her first day of post-surgery chemo, while her mother was by her side to support her, they received an alarming phone call. Her mother had recently been to the doctor because she had been feeling unwell herself…The blood test results had come in, and she needed to get the hospital immediately. So they literally went from the UCLA cancer treatment center to the UCLA main hospital, where her mother was admitted for immediate intensive care and was diagnosed with AML leukemia. In a moment, Jacqui had gone from being a cancer patient to being a caregiver for her mother, who was now also a cancer patient even more debilitated than herself. Over the next couple months, Jacqui was either receiving chemo herself or staying by her mother’s side in the hospital.

As Jacqui is an only child and her mother is a single mom, the amount of stress they were carrying between the two of them was enormous. Despite these incredible challenges, Jacqui never complained or asked for help. She just kept plugging along, caring for her mother and keeping up with her own treaments. She completed six months of chemotherapy just before the holidays at the end of 2015. She was looking forward to a final surgery to allow her to remove her ileostomy bag at the start of this year. She was ready to put this cancer chapter behind her.

Unfortunately the follow-up scans showed numerous growths in her lungs, and she recently got the devastating news that the growths are cancerous. Her doctors are now telling her that her cancer is not curable and she will need to continue receiving chemotherapy every two weeks for the rest of her life to treat this "chronic" condition. The goal of the chemo now is to keep the cancer from growing and spreading. This news took the wind out of her sails initially, but in her usual fashion, she has managed to dust herself off and step forward making the best of what she has. Her mother’s health is very fragile and the two of them commute far from their home in Riverside County to UCLA where they receive medical care. Jacqui has been unable to work for the past year due to her ongoing treatments. The financial strain is causing her considerable stress which is not good for her health. She is paying high monthly premiums for private health insurance so that she can continue getting the best medical care for as long as possible.

Jacqui is so conscientious and self-reliant that she is hesitant to ask for help, but right now she’s living on a shoestring budget and a little help would go a long way to take some weight off her shoulders. When I asked her what would really be helpful to her, she said that raising enough to cover a year of insurance premiums and the deductible ($15K) would be a huge relief. I’m hoping that we can do that and then some….anything additional could give her a little breathing room so that she can treat herself to a few fun things on her bucket list. She just turned 28 years old and I hope that we can help her fill this year with lots of joyful experiences. Any contribution is greatly appreciated!