My sweet, beautiful soul-sister, was diagnosed with Stage 3c Colon Cancer at 42. She is undergoing chemo. Erika is a true fighter in every sense of the word. Unfortunately, she was let go from her job and can no longer work. These pasts months have been hard, as you can imagine. Erika has tried to work with creditors, mortgage companies, light bills, etc. only to be turned away and recently was served papers to appear in court for debts. She also has kids, one in college and one at home. She still supports both children. Erika needs our help with bills and never-ending medical bills. No donation is too small. Please help my friend and donate. Thank you so much.

Erika began having odd symptoms in June. Really just some constipation and nausea. By July 4 she went to the hospital where they told her after a CT she had a slight case of colitis. She adjusted her diet and nothing was working. By August 4 she was in the hospital again and again told to go home and deal with the colitis.

Colonoscopy and Endoscopy on August 8, the day before her son Benjamin’s 15th birthday and also the first day of school for him, we were told I had a 2.5 in mass that was 97% obstructing my sigmoid colon, no colitis. The Dr told her husband William he was 100% sure it was cancer.

Her scheduled appointment with a surgeon was 8/18, the day after taking her daughter Hannah to move into her dorm. They immediately admitted Erika, she had lost a documented 30lbs in 2 months. And had been having 14-20 hour violent vomiting sessions. The surgeon scheduled her for iv nutrition over the weekend with an emergency squeeze-in on Monday 8/22 for a removal mass.

On August 22 she had a 5 in resection of sigmoid colon and stayed until Friday 8/26. The pathology revealed that it was stage 3c with 9 of 20 lymph nodes testing positive for adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid colon.

She never returned to work. Erika recovered from surgery and began chemo. The scheduled chemo treatments were for too many days off too often and she was asked to resign for the time being. Leaving her with no income since 8/22.

Erika has called all creditors and they treat her like anyone not paying. All the local resources are tapped out due to the poverty-stricken families where she lives. So at this point, she will likely have to file bankruptcy which she doesn’t want to do so will try to respond and make sure the fact that she has cancer and no income is clearly documented.