On Thursday the 10th of June, after experiencing ongoing dizziness, nausea, double vision, and inability to walk without falling, Kristina was rushed to the hospital.

By midnight we would receive the worst news imaginable.

My best friend and sister, Kristina, was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Over the coming weekend, we would find out more about her condition. Specifically that she has a very rare, and highly aggressive tumour; DIPG.

There are no effective treatments for DIPG and current therapeutic strategies are essentially palliative.
The survival rate for DIPG is zero.
The average prognosis is 9 to 12 months.
They have given her 12, with the hopes of extending to 24 as the best-case scenario.

This has absolutely destroyed our entire family. We are beyond devastated and completely heartbroken.

Kristina has grown into an incredibly beautiful, kind, caring, and loving woman, and the thought of losing her, of my children losing their auntie, a person that has given them so much love and support that she has undoubtedly become a second mother to them, hurts in a way I can not begin to explain.
And the thought of my mother losing her daughter, it's completely unbearable.
Even now as I write this, my eyes are filled with tears and I can feel my heart breaking all over again.

Coming to terms with this will be the hardest thing we will ever have to do, and though I don't want to think about what is to come, I want to make sure that whatever that may be, that Kristina is in the best position possible to fight this and feel our support and love while doing so.

So, this is why we've started this GoFundMe. To establish a place for people to show their support for Kristina, and make sure she knows she's not alone in this.

The coming months will be difficult, but with your help, we can make it a little easier.

With this money we hope to alleviate some of the financial pressure she is facing, and reduce her overall stress so that her entire focus can be placed on putting up one hell of a fight against her DIPG.

A few of the things we would like to do with the financial support are:

- Buy a wheelchair
- Help in the purchase of a vehicle suitable for wheelchair use
- Reduce the overall financial pressure of living expenses over the coming months
- Travel costs between Sunshine Coast and Brisbane hospital
- Help bring family up to see her throughout this time
- Honestly, some sort of experience or holiday if she's able to do so.

Any and all donations will be received with endless gratitude and love from all of us, but please do not feel any pressure whatsoever to donate to this campaign. Reaching out and sending love is so valuable and important to us, and we couldn't be more humbled by the love already shown by all of our friends and family.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please don't forget to tell the people around you how much you love them, as tomorrow is never promised.

Thank you,

Kat & Alex