Hello friends,

Our brilliant, talented, beautiful friend, Malaika Ross needs financial support right now as she navigates the dynamic process of fighting invasive ductal carcinoma. Malaika is currently a full-time artist living and working in the Western Mass community with her sweet pup, O'hia.

A life-changing diagnosis like breast cancer can dig up a lot of emotions and your financial assistance allows her to rehabilitate and navigate the challenging and changing aspects of dealing with cancer. Finding out how to diagnose her treatment with different doctors and appointments in Boston and Northampton while also moving this month is a full-time job.

Malaika's surgery date keeps changing as doctors get more information. Updates will be posted here as information becomes available.

Black women experience higher rates of death from breast cancer due to a combination of factors, including barriers to early diagnosis and high-quality treatment, the aggressive nature of certain breast cancers diagnosed more often in Black women, lack of high-quality care, genetics, discrimination, and systemic racism. Read more about this here.

You can find out more about this diagnosis here: https://www.breastcancer.org/types/invasive-ductal-carcinoma

Please consider holding our dear friend up with a financial contribution. Your gift will help ease the financial burden of treatment. No meal train is planned at this time due to food restrictions.

You can find more out about Malaika Ross and her art here: https://www.instagram.com/malaikaross_studio/

warmly,

The Hope Street crew