Help Deidre Fight Cancer and Keep Smiling!

Ali Iwaskow is organizing this fundraiser.

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Our dear friend Deidre (loving called Deedee Ma by her besties :) is the loyalist of friends, a devoted environmentalist, dedicated dog mom, beloved Auntie, and an overall beautiful person. She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in April which has already spread to her lymph system.

I’ve started this fundraiser for her because she is like a sister to me. I have been with her since the beginning, watching her bravely meet the challenging moments which have been rolling in at full speed since this chapter started, including witnessing her experience a rare and painful complication to a routine breast biopsy which punctured and collapsed her lung, requiring an emergency chest tube placement and a three day hospital stay. It was in that hospital room that she received the heartbreaking news of her diagnosis and started the rollercoaster journey she’s been on ever since.

Deidre lives solo in a sweet, little homestead cabin on a rugged piece of desert land near Joshua Tree with her dog, Juno. She is possibly the most independent, self-reliant person I know and doesn’t like to ask for help, but she really needs it right now, and I am asking for it on her behalf.

She already knows more about cancer than most of us hopefully ever will, watching her father go through chemo and surgery for cancer of two separate kinds, and taking care of her mother in her passing months as she fought and lost her own battle with breast cancer at 63.

Although stunned to receive the diagnosis, having lived a clean, healthy, vegetarian lifestyle since losing her mother to cancer years ago, Deidre followed her doctors recommendation to begin a four drug chemotherapy regimen, which they planned to follow-up with a mastectomy and radiation. Not yet healed from the chest tube placement, more complications came after she underwent a second surgical procedure to place a medi-port into the central vein leading to her heart which was necessary to save her other veins from deteriorating from the intense chemotherapy regimen she was about to start. The first spot the surgeon used to place the port didn't work and it had to be moved to a second location. Infections, severed nerves, constant pain, and the port nearly poking through her skin due to how thin she had become led to its early removal so she now receives the treatments in her veins.

Despite faith and a positive mindset that her healthy lifestyle would allow her to breeze through the intense chemo schedule, her body severely rejected it. Already thin before starting, Deidre was unable to eat or keep anything in for weeks. She lost so much weight, and became so weak, that she wasn’t able to care for herself, had to stop the chemotherapy treatments, and has had to find alternative ways to treat this disease.

Fortunately, she has been diligently researching non-traditional therapies and has found that many less toxic, highly effective cancer treatments are available. Unfortunately, they are costly and not covered by insurance so she has to pay for all of these treatments completely out of pocket until she's healed.

The next round of treatments that she needs to beat this thing are expensive:

RGCC ONCONOMICS PLUS TEST--$2,400
(A highly specialized blood test that will determine specific anti-cancer drugs, targeted therapies and natural treatments that will be effective on her individual cancer cells. https://www.rgcc-group.com/tests/onconomics-plus-rgcc/ )

CONSULT W/ INTEGRATIVE FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE MD--$600
(To interpret RGCC Test results and determine new treatment agents)

XXX [ON HOLD**** IPT TREATMENTS (6)--$12,000] XXX
(IPT=Low Dose Insulin Potentiated Therapy with the agents specified in the RGCC test. These treatments use a much smaller dose (5-10%) of the traditional chemo dosage she was not able to tolerate. $2,000-$2,200/per treatment )

SOT TREATMENTS (3-4)--$14,000
(Supportive Oglionucleotide Therapy takes a blood sample which identifies Circulating Tumor Cells, then a small molecule call microRNA is developed to match exactly into the key portion of the cancer cell that controls cell death. The SOT in injected intravenously, spreads throughout the body and embeds into the cancer and will disrupt the ability of the cancer to replicate. $3,500/per treatment)

IV Vitamin C & OZONE (6)--$1,500
(Treatments given in conjunction with the IPT to lessen the side effects and to keep her immune system healthy during the treatments. $250/per treatment)

Dee Dee is doing all she can to raise the money needed to for fight for her life, and has been receiving financial support from her family to cover her living expenses and all of the supplements, medications, and vitamin IV therapies she’s been on to help rebuild her system before starting the next round of treatments. She has already sold her vintage Rod and Reel trailer, her car and has put her classic collector old pick-up truck up for sale. The last thing she could sell to raise the money needed for her treatments is her home, and she will if it comes to that, but I’m hopeful this fundraiser can help keep her living in her cozy little desert home and keep that smile on her face.

This is a woman who would do anything for her family, friends and Mother Earth. Please join me in supporting her to cover her medical costs. I promise you, the world is better with her in it. And if you're not able to make a donation right now, please hold her in your prayers, prayers for healing and prayers that she tolerates the new treatments well. And feel free to share this if you can :)

Right before her diagnosis...

The pain meds are working! Keeping her chin and spirits up day 2 first hospital stay. (Thanks Britta & Sagi for bringing her toothbrush, clean undies and for doggie sitting Juno :)