My name is Ivana Mitchell and I’ve been friends with Meighan Valero for 23 years. The world may know her as Dr. Meighan Valero – Naturopathic Doctor extraordinaire and cancer slayer, with a brilliant mind, an optimistic heart, and most infectious laugh. And while she is all the above, she is also the kindest and most loving and caring friend, sister, fiancé, and daughter, who has been through the unthinkable in 2022. 

At the time when she should have been focused on planning her July 2022 wedding and looking forward to married life, she’s spent this year fiercely fighting for her father’s life. Her father, Jose Valero, was diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer that quickly and unexpectedly metastasized to his heart, causing serious complications, and sadly resulting in his passing on April 27, 2022. 

On April 19th what was supposed to be a routine visit to Princess Margaret Cancer Centre for basic pre-chemo bloodwork resulted in her father coding upon arriving and being admitted to the urgent care floor where they discovered he had quickly developed the most massive pericardial effusion that PMH has ever seen, lymphangitis carcinomatosis, a pulmonary embolism and cardiac tamponade.  It was here that he was asked what his wishes were with respect to advanced measures for resuscitation as they could see his death was imminent.  To this he said that he was fighting so hard to simply make it to his youngest daughter’s wedding and that he didn’t care if he died the next day but that they needed to do everything in their power to make sure he had a chance to be there. From here he was transferred to the Coronary Intensive Care Unit at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at Toronto General Hospital. It was here that Mr. Valero’s daughters, Meighan and Rebecca were told that he had hours to days to live. 

Due to the state of the pandemic, the CICU desperately needed their father’s bed and he was transferred to the general medicine floor of Toronto General.  He required maximum comfort palliative care and instead he was moved to a general medicine floor that is suffering the peak of the pandemic where more than half the nursing staff were off sick with COVID and the remaining nurses were taking on 2-3 times their normal patient-load.  This floor was completely ill-equipped to care for a patient that requires this level of care and compassion. As a result his daughters and their partners stayed with him 24/7, never leaving his side, they made spreadsheets to track that his pain medications were not being missed after seeing how hard it was for the nurses to check on him regularly.  They watched in heart-wrenching agony as their father suffered, they fanned him and cleansed his body with cool compresses when the heating and cooling was broken and left his room as hot as a sauna, they advocated relentlessly to have him transferred to the Palliative Care Unit at Princess Margaret but there were no available beds. Thankfully after many days of painful suffering Mr. Valero was transferred to the Palliative Care Unit at Princess Margaret where he was treated with the utmost respect, dignity and efficiency.  They were able to relieve his pain immediately and ultimately he passed away later that evening with his loving family by his side in peace and tranquility.

I can’t begin to imagine the physical, emotional, and mental toll this year has been for Meighan. Since the beginning of 2022, as you can imagine, Meighan never left her father’s side. She utilized all her expertise in naturopathic medicine and adjunctive cancer care to provide support for her father while also collaborating with medical professionals and advocating for the most effective treatments and care. Since her father lived and received treatment four hours away from Windsor, this resulted in Meighan using her entire wedding savings to cover the cost of transportation (train tickets and gas for road trips), accommodation (hotel stays that lasted weeks), lost wages for time off work, medical expenses for treatments, and sadly funeral expenses. 

Meighan initially declined my idea of a GoFundMe campaign, as she felt uncomfortable asking for assistance. After all, she’s the one in the community who has provided care to so many battling cancer and fighting to survive.  She is always finding ways to support others.  She ultimately embraced the idea because one of Mr. Valero’s final wishes was to create a fund in honour of him and his late wife Georgina Valero (who also passed from cancer) to be used to help patients access Naturopathic Medicine for adjunctive cancer care support.  He was incredibly proud of his daughter Meighan who set out to become a naturopathic doctor and specialize in cancer after the tragic death of her mother from stomach cancer in 2004.  Since then she has opened a clinic, Valero Wellness where she has helped thousands in the community reduce side effects of conventional cancer treatments (chemo, radiation, surgery), improve quality of life, improve cancer symptoms, enhance the effect of conventional treatments when possible, and many times defy the odds stacked against them. Since naturopathic medicine is not government funded through OHIP, access to this type of care can be difficult for those who do not have the financial means. Mr. Valero wished to create a fund that would help give many access to this much needed care.

 

Somehow despite this unimaginable grief, heartbreak and tragedy we hope that through this Fund many others who find themselves facing the fight of their lives will have the support and strength they need to defy the odds stacked against them. I hope you will consider donating to this important GoFundMe campaign to cover some of the many costs Meighan accrued this year and most importantly to build a treatment fund for those who need it most. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.