Urgent Plea to Save Single Mother's Life

Dear Friends,

We are reaching out to you with an urgent plea for support to help save our beloved friend's life. Rokhsan (Roxy), a single mother raising her wonderful 13-year-old daughter Anela, has been battling stage 4 colorectal cancer for the past 17 months and was scheduled to have life saving surgery on May 16th. However, just a few days before it was to take place, she received notice that her insurance company was denying her coverage for the procedure.

Since she was first diagnosed in January 2022, Roxy has gone through an incredible 20 rounds of chemo until she experienced a bad reaction with brain swelling that sent her to the ICU. She went on to go through 6 rounds of targeted therapy until she developed a severe and painful infection that put her on antibiotics for 2 months. Finally, it was decided that she would receive 5 rounds of radiation treatment to shrink the tumors so that they could be surgically removed. Once radiation was completed, the surgery would have to take place within 2 weeks for it to be a success. Her doctors informed her that this surgery was her last chance to prolong her life.

Roxy, along with the support of her doctors, has been appealing the insurance company's (Anthem) denial, as this surgery is considered to be safe, effective, and is the standard of care (in the NCCN guidelines) for her diagnosis. Her appeal has been denied twice. Upon looking into who the doctor was that made this decision on the insurance company's behalf, it was discovered that this is an ear, nose and throat doctor who is making a final call on Roxy's life, deeming it "medically not necessary" and contradicting the surgeons who have noted 400+ similar procedures with successful outcomes.

Today, her doctors are continuing a 3rd appeal, but time has run out for her on the window she had after radiation. Every day lost is crucial as the scan she took on May 7th, showed growth in the tumors in her liver and her lungs.

What has kept Roxy fighting so hard, vastly surpassing all initial prognoses, is to be able to continue to raise her daughter Anela, who is a straight-A student, sings in the choir and nominated for 4 awards at school, is involved in community work and is beloved by teachers and friends alike. Their mother-daughter bond is extremely tight and to Roxy, the thought of dying and leaving her daughter is a pain worse than all the pain she encountered over the last year and a half.

As Roxy's close circle of friends, we are fighting hard for Roxy and Anela. We hope to spread her story far and wide in the hope to finally get the insurance decision reversed so that her life will be saved. This journey has also been financially difficult as Roxy has been unable to work and her medical procedures have been extremely expensive even with insurance. Now she braces herself for the real possibility of having to find a way to fund her surgery/recovery herself.

On Roxy's behalf, we humbly ask you to consider supporting this campaign... any amount donated is so very appreciated and will take her a step closer to her miracle. Please share this GoFundMe with your friends and on your social media platforms... we appreciate any and all efforts. We know we can do this together!

We are so very grateful for your support. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your compassion and your generosity. ❤️