Please Support Emma's Mum Battle Cancer

Hi, my name is Emma and I'm organizing this fundraiser with my school counsellor, Ms. Hogan, on behalf of my mum, Regan.

I want to start by saying how thankful my family and I are for all the people who have sent their love and support during these difficult times.

As a family, we have kept my mum's diagnosis quite private until we were able to come to terms with everything. In April 2021, my mum was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a type of non curable blood cancer that is rooted within the plasma cells. This was discovered after suffering tremendous pain for months prior from 7 compression fractures in her thoracic and lumbar spine, which have left her with lingering mobility issues.

On average, patients with Multiple Myeloma live 5-7 years after their diagnosis.

Although this cancer is non curable at this day in age, it is treatable. My mum has been doing chemotherapy and bone building infusions since April, with the hope of having a stem cell transplant in September 2021 to restart her immunity. Unfortunately, she was very sick last month and had to have two unexpected surgeries which led to many complications. Due to this, her stem cell transplant was delayed to mid October, this week. Last week, she was commuting to Vancouver General Hospital every day for many appointments such as receiving injections to increase her stem cell count, having a central line put in due to frail veins, and beginning the collection of stem cells where they were being spun, frozen, and renewed.

Early this week, my mum will receive a very high dose of chemotherapy with the goal to kill off everything. The downside is that it kills all good and bad which will leave her with zero immunity. They will then go ahead with the transplant putting the stem cells back and hoping they graft.

The hope of this fundraiser is to relieve some of the financial burden which my mum is feeling as she goes through this treatment. Post transplant, she will be staying at the Jean C Barber Lodge Cancer Society facility for a month with 24-hour care giving and monitoring as she will be very weak. It is $116 per night for both her and my older brother to stay, with a possibility of totaling up to $6,000. Thankfully, my mum’s insurance covered most of the expenses for the medicine needed for this procedure, however, some support with mobility equipment expenses is something we would greatly appreciate. It is a long road to recovery and the future is very uncertain at this point. She will be off work for roughly 3-6 months.

Being a single mum of 3, (Emma, 17, Liam, 20, Aidan, 22), I have seen her struggle before, but this has been 10 times harder. She has given her entire life for us, so it is only fair that I do everything in my power to help her. Some may say that their mum is strong, but they will never know the true value of saying it and fully meaning it. I say with everything in my heart that my mum is strong. If I could wish for one thing in the world, I would wish for a magical cure, but not even that would be equal to the number of things that she has done for me. Since the day she brought me into this world, she has been my rock and my person which is why I feel so strongly to help her. My mum doesn’t want cancer to be what defines her and would still like to keep aspects of our life private. It took a lot to convince her to allow me to move forward with this, but we are in a place where we need your support. If you are able to help in any way, it will be greatly appreciated and mean the absolute world to my family. Thank you!