Please see UPDATE 9/2/26 for link to Aloha State Daily article -click on informative internal links within the article—bless us all

PLEASE SEE UPDATE 8-30-26! A few dates for your calenders from West Coast to East!

My name is Jeannie.

My husband, Tony, and I celebrated his retirement and both our birthdays in the Fall of 2025 by moving to Hawai’i. We had tossed, donated, or shared whatever we owned and shipped 30-some boxes and our cars. We lucked out renting a furnished house through an unexpected windfall. We live frugally and happily these past eleven months watching Nature and hearing the river from our lanai all hours. Many of our friends say we deserve our kind of retirement. We could not have known that not even four months here, we’d be in back-to-back medical procedures to test why my numbers were off. In April 2026, I had moved from a benign mass to an incurable, rare, malignant Stage IV stomach cancer called G.I.S.T., gastrointestinal stromal tumor, eleven centimeters or four inches. Update below: for this disease, mine is medically termed “High Risk.” Currently, three medical teams prescribe a very expensive four-figure, thirty-some pills a month to treat G.I.S.T. We backed off to recover. But we’ve regrouped.

SHORT BIOs:

I’ve been a produced playwright for over 45 years and have written over eighty plays. My full collection as of December 2025 is housed at Stanford University Green Library Special Collections. In these Jeannie Barroga Papers, I am the only Filipino American female playwright in that category among collections like that of novelist, John Steinbeck. Tony and I celebrated our 25th Anniversary. He retired in 2024 as the Facilities Manager at the Marine Mammal Center.

THE ASK:

​We are seeking help. Most medical cases here are split between the Big Island and Oahu. Above our usual monthly costs and rent, besides co-pays, we have airfare, housing, and a four-figure targeted drug. Our savings, already part of a trust, dwindles daily. Cost-of-living takes nearly 60% of our income; medical bills drain about 20% the rest coming from annuities, dividends, and occasional stipends from my writing.

​Early July I was admitted as a Mayo Clinic patient. That trip increased the medical percentage of our till-then fixed income by another ten %;y still, we live at a lower take-home level from social security.

For us, we’re thankful retiring in Hawai’i for true friends and for making this goal as “OGs” to be inspired by other path-makers who have been sharing joy at life’s longevity.

We are aiming for $150,000 to address our medical financial worries and maintain our already closely budgeted daily costs. This Journey already has helped Tony and me grow closer, to practice patience, and to accept changes as partners and caregivers, he for me, as well as me for him.

ROCK-STREWN PATH:

After in-depth research, we now have connected with the Mayo Clinic, known to be the pinnacle in the field of rare cancers. As a child, I marveled at places that took in kids with cancer; now I’m a participant learning first-hand how adults experience this “journey”. Numbers: 42% of stomach cancers per year are women; 69% of cancer patients are of Asian descent; 60% are in my age group; and one per cent of the stomach cancers, G.I.S.T. , has a maximum life expectancy of about three years.

I would have flown alone from Hawai’i. But with my sister on the mainland, we traveled to the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. This was during a unique period of rising gas and flight costs. My sister’s flight helped keep travel costs lower than the overnight-long flight for two—Tony and me--from Hawai’i, the future traveler with me to Mayo. They also gave us a schedule of three more visits within a year, meaning more travel for future procedures. I keep revising our budget to align with each new change in plans.

LONG, UPHILL ROAD:

Please help us.

People who read this narrative yet don’t know me, well, this, too, is a miracle: to approach family and friends OF family and friends and hope they – you—respond. Both my very loving and attentive husband, Tony, are proud. Yet now with humility, we hold out our hands. He has worked 24 years in a non-profit animal care facility and loves all animals. We married late, neither with kids. We retired on social security. Our banks are depleting quickly with medical costs, travel, durable equipment, and our minutely budgeted rent and house costs with budgeted daily needs plus--when the most critical surgery is scheduled,--this may mean weeks living separately in the Midwest while I’m in follow-up surgeries or in recoveries from them.

Reading the clinical notes, I am amazed at how I’m described: compromised. Cancer affects thyroid, lymph nodes, and liver but diagnosed by Mayo as clear; their targeted focus is on the malignant tumor only. Mayo has re-termed me as “High Risk”. The cancer’s lesion has some dead cells. This unexpected rare, malignant, incurable stomach tumor must be removed or shrunken with an expensive long-time drug. Beyond the six-to nine months for the malignancy to decrease half its size, the most invasive excision is gastrojejunostomy, about three to six months after that. This period does not count the continual procedures to monitor the tumor’s progress with biopsies, 3-month intervals with ultrasounds, various cat- or pet scans, EKGs, lab work plus meds.

​Update: I tested the pill for 39 days which was showing a half-dozen side effects. My eyes swelled and covered my pupils. I was diagnosed in Emergency with periorbital edema and was advised to stop that pill. I now wait for a replacement much the same price as the first. I manage to keep a positive front. Tracking daily challenges takes a lot of energy.

CLEAR SIGHTS AHEAD:

We demonstrate gratitude, empathy and kindness daily. Tested during our time at Mayo, strangers we touched on the intangible miracles: generosity of Spirit.

There’s little else to say other than we live lives that we’re proud to say with kindness, love, wonderful family and friends, and in our dream location. Even five more years would be welcome, another miracle – in fact. We thank you, who read this, for your generosity in support and time reading this narrative. Further information: www.jeanniebarroga.com