Hi everyone, my name is Dwight Kaleohano and along with my cousin Chad Bianchi, we are organizing this fundraiser for our cousin Chantel Barros (Channy B). Channy is the strongest person we know. Growing up with her and being a part of each other’s lives since we were kids, we would be the first to tell anyone how resilient she truly is. To this day, we are all still very close.

Throughout life, Channy is the person you would call in the middle of the night when you were stuck or if you needed someone to talk to. She would always pick up, give you all of her time, or come and pick you up if you were stranded somewhere. I don’t think Chad or I could count the number of times she’s bailed us out of trouble or genuinely just showed up when we needed her most. That honestly goes for everyone she came into contact with—cousins, family, and friends. She would always go out of her way to help the people closest to her. She helped take care of my father during his battle with cancer without even thinking twice. She showed up day in and day out, doing what she did best: helping and caring for the ones she loved. No questions asked, just cared enough to do what needed to be done when it needed to be done. She’s Miss Reliable.

So now it’s time for us to come together and HELP her!! In July 2025, our family received the news that they found some lymph nodes that appeared to be cancerous, and after running tests, it was confirmed that Channy was officially diagnosed with Stage 3 Cancer. Before anyone had time to process anything, the doctors immediately operated on her, and 4 days after the initial operation, they went right back in to try and remove even more cancerous lymph nodes. As Channy started to heal from 2 surgeries in 1 week, they wanted to start her on the most aggressive cancer treatment they could give her, which she absolutely crushed while still working full-time. In December 2025, Channy was blessed with a beautiful baby girl, and with all the hardship she was going through mentally, emotionally, and physically, she fought every day for her daughter. After completing the aggressive chemotherapy treatment in February, we all, together with the oncologist, thought things were gonna be uphill from there.

Unfortunately, in May 2026, we got the news that the cancer was back and it was worse. The oncologist on Oahu said that the cancer Channy had was extremely rare, which led to a referral to a Cancer Specialist in Texas. After recently visiting the treatment facility in Texas, drawing blood, taking tests, and talking with the specialists…here’s what lies ahead.

Channy will be returning to Texas at the beginning of July and is scheduled to have another surgery (Number 4). They are going to go in even further than her previous operations to remove a lot more lymph nodes. She will be in recovery at the facility for 10 days, and then she won’t be able to fly back home to Hawaii for 8-10 weeks. Because of this, Channy will not be able to work for the foreseeable future, and she will need a place to reside and everything else that comes with that in Texas as she heals for the next 2-2.5 months. As you can imagine, the emotional and physical toll of this disease is heavy enough to try and carry. We want to do everything we can to help ensure that the financial burdens do not add to her stress and mental health, so she can focus on healing and recovering from surgery.

We are looking to raise as much as we possibly can. Everything will go to help with all of her out-of-pocket medical expenses, prescriptions, bills, basic living expenses, travel, and lodging during these next couple of months.

Any size contribution will make a massive impact for Channy so she can have the ability to focus entirely on healing. And if you are not able to donate anything, we completely understand that everyone is going through hard times. But if we could kindly ask you to share this story and link with your network of people, family, and friends, that alone would help tremendously. Channy was never the type of person to ask for help, but she helps everyone and gives everything she has to the people she loves without thinking twice about it.

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to share this, thank you for reading it, and most importantly, thank you for your generosity during this difficult time. We will be doing a few more things to help raise funds soon, so please be on the lookout.

With love and gratitude (Mahalo Piha) from the Barros, Kaleohano, and Bianchi Families/Ohana

Chantel Barros, Dwight Kaleohano, and Chad Bianchi.