Help Kimchi the Cat beat Cancer!

Dear Friends,

This is Onur organizing a campaign for our cat Kimchi's cancer fund. If you are receiving this campaign you most probably know me & my partner Bercin from the years I spent in various places like New Orleans (US), The Netherlands, Istanbul, and Ankara. Or you are a long-standing friend or a family member. Or we organized together politically.

If you know us, you know that my partner Bercin and I are firm believers in mutual aid. We’ve always tried to help people in need and always told them to pay it forward. But now, unfortunately, we're at the pointy end of aid and solidarity.

We need your help <3

In December 2023, we received a multitude of news; some were good, some were bad, but all were costly. We found out that we are going to have a baby, yay! The week after, we found that our beloved 13-year-old cat, Olivia (who couldn’t have pet insurance due to her age) had hyperthyroidism. We had a humble 10K as fairweather savings, with a 3-4K dent on my savings; Olivia is thankfully healed via radioiodine therapy. We could finally spend on the oncoming baby, and we started doing that. Then all the plans collapsed like a house of cards when, four weeks ago, we learned that Kimchi has a very aggressive cancer: large cell lymphoma. Even the diagnostics went through Kimchi's insurance quota (already maxed out this year with Figo pet insurance!), and our savings are like wildfire. Now, she will go through radiotherapy (costing approximately 3K) and chemotherapy (another 2K), let alone intermediate diagnostics. We are out of our financial means to help Kimchi no matter how much penny-pinching we do.

Please help us through these storms and make it to the shores in one piece. There won't be a better baby present than keeping Kimchi alive. This is medically possible, but only a little is possible financially in this perfect storm. We hope that even your modest help (at least helping pay for the treatments 3-5K) will make it possible!

How did we meet Kimchi and Olivia?

We found Kimchi & Olivia in the shelter where we volunteered (Animal Rescue New Orleans, ARNO). Kimchi was named Mega then because she's a master of hide & seek, and she was found in the engine of a Megabus when she was a two-week-old kitten. When we met her in the shelter, she shared a kennel with two absolute beasts: crazy, energetic brothers who didn't mind sitting beside her or eating lunch. We fell in love with her intelligent yet meek Zen attitude, she adored eating Asian greens for some reason (thus renamed Kimchi). She was six months old then. The same day, we also found Olivia (named Guinevere then); she had been abandoned in the shelter for 5+ years, hiding in the dark corners—her most beautiful, olive-looking eyes (thus Olivia). We adopted them that day: the best seven and half years of our lives. Perfect companions. They always stayed by my side during the nights I was working on my PhD. We watched birds together, traveled together, rode hurricanes together, evacuated from hurricane Ida together to Memphis after we ran out of food, and moved to the Netherlands together due to our immigration problems. They never complained; they always helped and adapted.

We are forever grateful for any donations you can make to support Kimchi’s treatment! The funds we receive will immediately be used for the radiotherapy and chemotherapy expenses. Thank you! <3