Updated 21st April 2023:

My incredibly brave and beautiful friend Onaiza is still fighting for her life, having undergone an extremely invasive surgery two years ago to remove the majority of her tumours. This surgery was made possible by the donations, support and love sent through this page. I am now restarting this campaign to ask for your support once again. She is facing extremely expensive chemotherapy costs and is without any funding. We need to raise another £44,000 to pay for her intravenous chemotherapy for this year - with the next cycle of chemotherapy starting in 10 days (May 2023). We previously raised an amazing £82,064, and so I will now change the target on the Unite for Onaiza campaign to £126,064. As we have seen before there is great strength in numbers, so please do help support in any way possible. Please share this page with your networks, donate if you can, send love, positivity and faith Onaiza's way. We have done this before and we can do this again.

A lot has happened in the past two years, so here's a little more of the story and what our wonderfully strong girl, Onaiza, is facing:

We are now two years on from when our courageous Onaiza had her major surgery. Through the goodness and love of the supporters of the Unite for Onaiza campaign we were able to not only fund the surgical costs, but also contribute towards her targeted radiation and chemotherapy tablet cycles.

Since recovery, Onaiza has been in and out of hospital with pain management issues, multiple procedures and the news that the residual cancer (post op) has now grown and spread, taking over throughout her body once again. Despite initially being responsive to intensive rounds of radiotherapy and chemotherapy tablets, she is now having to undergo all over intravenous chemotherapy.

Onaiza and her loving husband Adil, during a chemo session

Alongside this, she has regular stent procedures to support her kidney and ureter function - which she will have to continue to endure every three to six months for the rest of her life - to ensure proper functionality and to prevent infections.

Onaiza before a stent change procedure

Her medical costs, due to the rarity of this condition, are not eligible for any external financial aid and as a result, she has not been able to access any hospital funding. The extremely generous £80k+ raised two years ago and sent to Onaiza with love, has now been exhausted on the above medical costs, and we are in desperate need for another round of fundraising for her current chemotherapy plan.

Onaiza visits the hospital for the day to have her chemo session, in order to avoid the extremely expensive in-patient fees - Adil is by her side all the way

I implore you to kindly share with your networks and show support in any way you can. Any donation, of any size, will make a difference and have a direct impact on her life.

I cannot stress enough how extremely important it is that we find a way to raise this money for our girl. Her family has put everything they have into paying for these rounds of chemotherapy, and there are absolutely no funds left. This is certainly a scary time, but this contribution could relieve a huge amount of financial strain, not to mention the mental and physical stress her family has experienced in working as hard as possible to put all they can into what is needed, at every point, when funds have been required - on top of worrying about their daughter, their sister - their world.

Onaiza and her baby brothers, Azzaam (left), Aariz (right)

In fact, she is everyone's sister and friend. She has always looked after all her siblings, friends, and family. She is the girl that makes you laugh, works very hard, has wonderful close-knit groups of friends, she makes you the best cups of tea when you’ve had a tough day, dances to her heart’s content and takes adventures when opportunities arise. She is a central beacon of love in the groups that surround her, and her light continues to shine bright with hope for her future.

Onaiza keeping busy and positive during a chemo session

And though every other day she has been in hospital for pain, chemotherapy sessions or regular and emergency checks - she remains her bubbly, loving, positive, kind and powerful self. Her will is like no other. I would like to ask you to think of your own sister, daughter, granddaughter, aunty or best friend. This is who this beautiful soul is to us. Please help us, once again, as you have before, to give Onaiza the opportunity to fight for the biggest and best chance at a life in the years ahead.

Onaiza, 2023

Our girl, amazingly brave as ever, remains strong, happy and fighting for a chance to live her life to the fullest every single day.

Please share with your networks, donate or support in any way you can.

Gain support for Onaiza. Rise for Onaiza. Raise for Onaiza.

Unite for Onaiza.

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Original campaign:

My amazing friend, Onaiza, beautiful inside and out, is fighting for her life and with her advanced stage cancer is very quickly deteriorating. Please help us raise the money we need, for an intensive and absolutely paramount 8-12 hour surgery which could give her a fighting chance of up to ten more years. We need to raise 80% of this funding before her surgery on 11th April 2021.

 

Here is the story of her effervescent, and kind beyond your imagination soul. This is how it all came about:

 

In 2019, my dear friend Onaiza was diagnosed with an advanced stage Cancer, Adrenal Paraganglioma. She had been suffering from high blood pressure, a frightfully increased heart rate, nausea, pain, discomfort and several other symptoms which were treated, but unbeknown to her and her family were initial indications of this rare and extremely dangerous cancer. Onaiza was able to seek medical help from local hospitals and with certain medication was able to control some of these symptoms. Onaiza had her first surgery 18 months ago to try and conquer this tumour.

 

Later that year, during her fight against this very potent disease she met a wonderful, supportive and kind young man named Adil, who fell in love with her and asked her to marry him so that they could start their life together and have as much time together as possible.

Adil and Onaiza 2020

 

Unfortunately, due to restrictions posed by Covid-19, doctors have been unable to monitor the cancer as closely as they would have liked to. Having now had her most recent scan, the tumour that was found has now aggressively spread and is dotted around the body, including her lower abdomen, kidney, liver and lungs. She, her family, and us (her closest friends) had received the devastating news that there were not many treatment options for her and that not much can be done.

 

With great determination to seek help from oncologists across the US and UK, her family have managed to organise surgery for her, and though this is a very risky surgery with uncertain outcomes, Onaiza has courageously fought and wants to continue to fight to live her life, for herself and to be there for her husband, eight brothers and sisters, grandmother, parents, cousins and friends.

 

Onaiza and her loving family

However, this surgery and her treatments are extremely expensive, and while she and her whole family and group of friends are pulling together funds, she will need to privately fund all of her medical costs and this is in excess of £60,000 for this surgery alone. So far, we have raised £14,700 through private donations and therefore need to raise another £45,300 towards her surgery, which is why we have created this GoFundMe page - in the hope that by spreading this far and wide we can gain as much support as possible. Following this surgery she will continue to have chemotherapy and targeted radiation which will cost approximately £1,580 per session. Whatever little you can spare, please feel free to donate and share this with your network.

Onaiza's siblings, cousins and friends

In a world where we have very little control over our fate, we are reaching out to you for urgent support, to help save our girl, our love.

 

I am sending this out to all of the strong young women and men in my network and to the fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends of loving, kind, hard-working, family-minded women.

  

Onaiza is only 35 years old, she has her whole life ahead of her, please help us to prolong this wonderful life for as long as we can.

 

Please pray for Onaiza, share for Onaiza, donate for Onaiza. Unite for Onaiza.

Me and my wonderful friend Onaiza in 2010