Roksana's Cancer Fight

This is Roksana Tobijanskis story, a 31 year old, healthy, active girl, at the start of her life. She’s just another example of our flawed healthcare system. Her story started back in October 2023 when she found a lump smaller than a pea in her breast. Knowing this was the most common area for breast cancer she decided to immediately have it checked out. She spoke to the doctor at a clinic and he said it wasn’t of any concern, “it’s just some fatty deposit”, but he still sent her for an ultrasound. The ultrasound was done but it continued to be disregarded and swept under the rug. Roksana was scheduled for another ultrasound 6 months down the road, however, within that time the mass grew 10x the size, and it was now almost the size of a golf ball. At this point the health care professionals appeared to be a little more concerned but everyone kept her spirits very high saying she was “too young” to get cancer, the odds were in her favour. The second ultrasound was done April 26th and the mass was now protruding from the skin. Even now everyone continued to say she was too young for cancer, she had age on her side, so she never worried. A 3rd ultrasound was done May 3rd where they found another mass in her lymph nodes (in her armpit). At this point they started to speed things up a bit and on May 31st they sent her for a mammogram and a biopsy of the two masses. It wasn’t until a month later on June 26th that she finally received her diagnoses that she tested positive for breast cancer. She was told it was a highly treatable cancer and is very easy to cure. Her hopes were still set high, yes she had cancer, but it never sounded severe. She waited another few weeks because the biopsy needed to be sent to Toronto to be tested for HER2 protein and the mass continued to grow. She was promised by the nurses that with negative results she would go straight into surgery, no chemo. She spent the next few weeks extremely anxious waiting for these results. They finally came back negative. She was ecstatic knowing it would be over soon but the news had changed things. She was now getting told she had to go to the cancer centre to meet with an oncologist. She was distraught but she continued to be brave because she knew this was very curable. She anxiously waited another 2 weeks until she finally got an appointment to meet with the oncologist at the end of July. She went into the appointment ready for good news but the information she received was life changing. She was diagnosed with stage 3 invasive triple negative breast cancer that had already spread to the lymph nodes. She felt absolutely broken. This was by far the worst news she could have received. This cancer has an incredibly invasive nature and it’s very likely to re-occur. At 31, she would soon have to start an aggressive treatment of both chemotherapy followed by immunotherapy and surgery. Her treatment timeline would be over 1 year. One year of life lost to this aggressive and invasive form of cancer.

Roksana will be starting her cancer treatment in the coming weeks, however, due to her age she has had to undergo a vast amount of testing and additional procedures. Procedures, medication and travel that we did not anticipate. Our family was surprised to see how much is not covered and how many additional costs come along with fighting cancer. As she faces this challenging journey, we want to ensure she receives the best possible care without financial burdens. Your support will help cover medical expenses, treatments, travel expenses, and living costs during this difficult time.

Any support is greatly appreciated. We want to thank you in advance, from the bottom of our hearts. It has not been easy asking for support, but we want nothing more than to see our girl get better without any additional stress. We cannot express our gratitude enough for anyone who is able to help us during this emotional and challenging time.