Paula and Her Sons While She Fights Cancer

Thank you so much for finding your way here. My name is Paula and I’m currently battling Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I’m 27 and my two sons are Danny, 12, and Viktor, 7.

I have been a single mom for one year now, and I had started my first full time job as a landscape design foreman on July 27, 2022. Everything was going really well. I was working hard and finding my way and becoming independent for the first time in my life, with the goal of being able to keep my boys and I in our home here near the East Coast of North Carolina.

I had grown uncomfortable at work three months in with abdominal pain but continued to work, as I had to, and then one night I woke up in horrific pain. I was rushed to the ER on November 11, 2022, and the next day I was in the hospital in Wilmington, NC for surgery to remove 1 large tumor in my colon, and two tumors on my right ovary. The right ovary was removed.

A week later I was sitting in front of my oncologist, who let me know my diagnosis. I started Chemo on December 14, 2023, after many tests took place.

Although we are all hoping for a positive outcome and the prognosis is good, I am still currently not able to work. It is now February 16, 2023, and I’ve exhausted all efforts at this point. I’m unable to work, and unable to pay my own bills until I can work full time again. I have had some family lending a huge helping hand, but I can’t expect them or ask them to provide all of my financial needs, so here I am, where I never thought I would be, asking you all for help to get me back on my feet and make it possible for me to ease back into work over the next 6+ months as I recover from chemo. My goal is to be able to stay in my home, pay my own bills, buy food, put gas in my car, take my sons out to eat once a week, buy them clothes and shoes as needed, and I also have a cat and a dog that also are needing check-ups at the vet. I also just need to take care of my home, as things come up. I will be needing to purchase my own health insurance as well when my divorce is finalized… I definitely feel like I’m in the eye of a hurricane, just clinging on to the love of family and friends at this time.

Lastly, if it’s at all possible at the end of all this to be able to take my kids somewhere to celebrate making it through this together, that is our wish, and it would lift up our spirits so much. A trip to the mountains maybe, I don’t know. But just to see them laughing and smiling would be so wonderful.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for your generosity, your kindness, and love towards my boys and I. It means the world to us.

With Love and Gratitude,

Paula, Danny and Viktor