Support Olivia Ciafrei’s Journey with ACC

Please help support one of my closest friends through her journey with Stage IV Adrenocortical Carcinoma (ACC) a rare adrenal cancer. She and her family need spiritual and financial support for surgery, treatment, hospital bills, and other expenses that will continue to arise during this ongoing medical crisis. Please share and support the Ciafrei’s as they continue to navigate through this journey.

UPDATE AS OF DECEMBER 2023:

I am providing an updated summary of Olivia’s journey so far but I highly encourage anyone who wants regular updates to visit Olivia’s caring bridge website, make an account, and follow to receive notifications with updates.

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/oliviaciafrei

Olivia was officially diagnosed with stage III ACC following surgery at UCSF in August of 2022. Early this year (2023) lung nodules were found on Olivia’s PET scan, meaning she now has metastatic, or Stage IV, cancer. This cancer is extremely rare, 1 in a million. She is being seen by oncologists at Kaiser and also one of the few specialists in the country, Dr. Fojo at Columbia University Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center in NYC. He is truly a blessing to Olivia and the entire ACC community.

As you can imagine, living with stage IV cancer is not easy, especially for a 29 year old with so much life ahead of her to be lived. She is currently taking oral chemotherapy meds that have a lot of nasty side effects, making her unable to hold a steady job. She has been unemployed since her surgery. While she is able to get some supplemental income from social security, it is uncertain how long she will be able to collect this income. She has been using the very generous donations and her personal savings to fund travel to-and-from appointments, supportive therapies and appointments not covered by insurance, and family trips to some new places and some favorite places. The donations have made a HUGE impact on Olivia’s quality of life.

This upcoming year may look a bit different though. Olivia would like to get another opinion in Texas at MD Anderson, which will likely require out of pocket payment. After meeting with Dr. Fojo in November, he predicted that Olivia may need either IV chemotherapy or surgery to remove the nodules in her lungs before the end of the year. The surgery would likely take place in either NYC at Columbia or in Maryland with the NIH. As you can imagine, these trips can be very costly and am hoping we can all show up for Olivia, to offset the stress and uncertainty with some financial stability.

As of now, none of the appointments or surgeries are set in stone but any amount truly helps her and her family cover day to day costs and therapies. I will continue to update this page and raise the fundraising goal as costs arise but I don’t see any harm in providing a cushion, in case her condition were to change without warning.

Olivia is a special person to so many in the vibrant Fairfax/West Marin community. Born and raised in Fairfax, CA, Olivia has attended Manor Elementary, Cascade Canyon, Archie Williams High, and College of Marin. She has worked in many local restaurants and businesses since high school. So whether you’ve gone out west to Hog Island Oyster Co., or stayed in Fairfax and grabbed coffee at the Java Hut, a smoothie or juice Good Earth, or dinner at Still Water, Olivia has probably served you at some point! She has recently started to volunteer at San Quentin a couple days a week, following her passion to work with incarcerated folks. She helps to prepare incarcerated folks for their parole board hearings and their re-integration into society following their sentences. She is such a sweet, bright, and caring person. She cares so deeply for her friends, family, and others.

Olivia and her family- Clare, Terry, and Antonio- still need support from their community and beyond. Please keep praying, manifesting, hoping, believing in Olivia’s health. Our thoughts and words have so much power! If you are unable to donate, please share the link and you can always send cards / well wishes to Olivia and her family via mail, texts, social media. Her family keeps every single card that has been sent to them. Thank you for reading and I thank everyone who has donated, shared, wrote, etc. Olivia is so truly grateful to have this amazing support system behind her.