Help Young Mom Continue Her Colon Cancer Fight!
Donation protected
Many of you already know our dear sister Charlotte! Many of you know that she was diagnosed with Stage four Colon Cancer 12 months ago just two weeks after giving birth to her third child Maxwell! Many of you know just how hard she has been fighting this disease, fighting to stay alive, fighting to find the next clinical trial to give her hope, fighting through the regular ER visits just to recover in time for the next Chemo treatment, fighting to wake up in the morning and be mom.
She fought 10 months with the help of chemotherapy and immunotherapy which brought many sick and debilitating days, but the tumors continued to grow. Left with only a Phase 1 clinical trial as her only hope to extend her life, she embarked on the unknown of a clinical trial treatment for a full four weeks. Days in the hospital devoted to adhering to the clinical trial requirements and the unknowns of side effects only to find herself in severe pain in week four. Scans were performed early showing aggressive growth in her liver, lungs and colon which now leave her in severe 10/10 pain despite the unimaginable regimen of pain medicines she has to intake daily. She was admitted to ‘Brigham and Womens’ hospital on January 6th in the hopes the physician teams could bring her some relief from her pain described as being in labor 24/7. Radiation, nerve blocks, more medications and still she fights with no relief. Her only wish is not to be medicated to a point that she is not alert enough to enjoy the brief moments she has with her children.
She will continue to fight to be the amazing mom she is and she will continue to fight to teach all of us around her what faith and true love for humanity really is. We watch her, we learn, we love and we can only ever hope to be half the person she is. In her own words:
"The mind and spirit of man advance when he is tried by suffering. The more the ground is ploughed the better the seed will grow, the better the harvest will be. Just as the plough furrows the earth deeply, purifying it of weeds and thistles, so suffering and tribulation free man from the petty affairs of this worldly life until he arrives at a state of complete detachment."- `Abdu'l-Baha
2020 has proved to be a period of intense pain and suffering so far. In the last few weeks of 2019 my pain rapidly increased which prompted my oncologist to request an early scan. The scan showed what I expected and knew would be the reality as pain is a good marker for tumor progression. Many of my tumors grew quite significantly in the four weeks I was on the clinical trial. I was quickly taken off of it. The same day I was admitted into the hospital primarily for the management of pain as I am no longer able to walk or stand for more than a minute at a time. Being in the hospital will hopefully help, it includes trying out multiple drugs and also includes radiation which will be particularly difficult for me and potentially could matters worse. Due to the severe side effects of surgery, this is not on the table for me as an option right now. I plan to begin radiation tomorrow and am very hopeful it can alleviate some of the intense pain in the long run. I am trying very hard to keep the above quote from the Bahai writings loud and clear in my minds eye, however I admit this has been far from easy. I miss my babies terribly and hope to see them soon at home, we are hoping I will be here about one week but it’s up in the air. Once again, I hope by posting this I inspire some of you to demand a colonoscopy before the age of 50-60, it is possible. Here’s to the new year getting better with time ....
We are all sooo incredibly thankful for you all. Your support, your meals, your financial donations, your prayers, your genuine thoughts and caring smiles, your hugs, your texts, your calls, your willingness to help with the children. It is this community that gives us all the strength to keep fighting, to keep seeing the good in the world.
10 months ago, together we raised over $47,000 to help support Charlotte and her family. THANK YOU!! These donations gave Charlotte the means to take care of herself AND her children for a whole year during this nightmare of beginning the cancer fight. 12 months later we are reaching out to our community in an attempt to raise enough money to give Charlotte peace of mind that her children are forever taken care of. Childcare morning and afternoon, daycare costs, supplementing the loss of the second income (Charlotte was in sooooo much pain at the end of her pregnancy due to the cancer tumor with no diagnosis that she was forced to leave her job losing ALL benefits, life insurance, disability insurance and any other benefits that could have helped this deserving family when needed the most….yes….that was after seeing many doctors in an attempt to find out what was wrong!) At a loss of what else we can do, we her sister’s are reaching out to you all to see if you can help us replace this well deserved loss for our sister and her family. Please know we appreciate your thoughts, prayers and love so much and will be forever grateful to this wonderful community that supports our amazing and beloved sister Chazzie!
Some of you know Charlotte’s amazingly supportive husband Gaston. Gaston is a refugee and survivor of the Rwandan civil war where he lost his parents and arrived in the US to live a better and safer life. We could not be luckier to call this man a part of our family. He continually shows us the positives of each and every day and is a true example of being thankful and living to make the most of what you have. Our heart breaks that he has had to go through one trauma that most of us will never understand but now a second…..sooo unfair! Help us help him and the whole Ngarukiye family (Isabella (5), Alexandra (4), Maxwell (a big 1:)).
We love and thank you all! We are deeply touched and forever grateful to each and every one of you.
xxxxxxxxxx
She fought 10 months with the help of chemotherapy and immunotherapy which brought many sick and debilitating days, but the tumors continued to grow. Left with only a Phase 1 clinical trial as her only hope to extend her life, she embarked on the unknown of a clinical trial treatment for a full four weeks. Days in the hospital devoted to adhering to the clinical trial requirements and the unknowns of side effects only to find herself in severe pain in week four. Scans were performed early showing aggressive growth in her liver, lungs and colon which now leave her in severe 10/10 pain despite the unimaginable regimen of pain medicines she has to intake daily. She was admitted to ‘Brigham and Womens’ hospital on January 6th in the hopes the physician teams could bring her some relief from her pain described as being in labor 24/7. Radiation, nerve blocks, more medications and still she fights with no relief. Her only wish is not to be medicated to a point that she is not alert enough to enjoy the brief moments she has with her children.
She will continue to fight to be the amazing mom she is and she will continue to fight to teach all of us around her what faith and true love for humanity really is. We watch her, we learn, we love and we can only ever hope to be half the person she is. In her own words:
"The mind and spirit of man advance when he is tried by suffering. The more the ground is ploughed the better the seed will grow, the better the harvest will be. Just as the plough furrows the earth deeply, purifying it of weeds and thistles, so suffering and tribulation free man from the petty affairs of this worldly life until he arrives at a state of complete detachment."- `Abdu'l-Baha
2020 has proved to be a period of intense pain and suffering so far. In the last few weeks of 2019 my pain rapidly increased which prompted my oncologist to request an early scan. The scan showed what I expected and knew would be the reality as pain is a good marker for tumor progression. Many of my tumors grew quite significantly in the four weeks I was on the clinical trial. I was quickly taken off of it. The same day I was admitted into the hospital primarily for the management of pain as I am no longer able to walk or stand for more than a minute at a time. Being in the hospital will hopefully help, it includes trying out multiple drugs and also includes radiation which will be particularly difficult for me and potentially could matters worse. Due to the severe side effects of surgery, this is not on the table for me as an option right now. I plan to begin radiation tomorrow and am very hopeful it can alleviate some of the intense pain in the long run. I am trying very hard to keep the above quote from the Bahai writings loud and clear in my minds eye, however I admit this has been far from easy. I miss my babies terribly and hope to see them soon at home, we are hoping I will be here about one week but it’s up in the air. Once again, I hope by posting this I inspire some of you to demand a colonoscopy before the age of 50-60, it is possible. Here’s to the new year getting better with time ....
We are all sooo incredibly thankful for you all. Your support, your meals, your financial donations, your prayers, your genuine thoughts and caring smiles, your hugs, your texts, your calls, your willingness to help with the children. It is this community that gives us all the strength to keep fighting, to keep seeing the good in the world.
10 months ago, together we raised over $47,000 to help support Charlotte and her family. THANK YOU!! These donations gave Charlotte the means to take care of herself AND her children for a whole year during this nightmare of beginning the cancer fight. 12 months later we are reaching out to our community in an attempt to raise enough money to give Charlotte peace of mind that her children are forever taken care of. Childcare morning and afternoon, daycare costs, supplementing the loss of the second income (Charlotte was in sooooo much pain at the end of her pregnancy due to the cancer tumor with no diagnosis that she was forced to leave her job losing ALL benefits, life insurance, disability insurance and any other benefits that could have helped this deserving family when needed the most….yes….that was after seeing many doctors in an attempt to find out what was wrong!) At a loss of what else we can do, we her sister’s are reaching out to you all to see if you can help us replace this well deserved loss for our sister and her family. Please know we appreciate your thoughts, prayers and love so much and will be forever grateful to this wonderful community that supports our amazing and beloved sister Chazzie!
Some of you know Charlotte’s amazingly supportive husband Gaston. Gaston is a refugee and survivor of the Rwandan civil war where he lost his parents and arrived in the US to live a better and safer life. We could not be luckier to call this man a part of our family. He continually shows us the positives of each and every day and is a true example of being thankful and living to make the most of what you have. Our heart breaks that he has had to go through one trauma that most of us will never understand but now a second…..sooo unfair! Help us help him and the whole Ngarukiye family (Isabella (5), Alexandra (4), Maxwell (a big 1:)).
We love and thank you all! We are deeply touched and forever grateful to each and every one of you.
xxxxxxxxxx
Fundraising team: Charlotte's Sister's (3)
Nikki Douglass
Organizer
Portsmouth, NH
Charlotte Ngarukiye
Beneficiary
Denise Todd
Team member
Dominique Todd
Team member
