Remembering Rebecca

Rebecca Lana Cimato 

4/12/19 84 – 5/9/2024

https://www.captivasanibel.com/2024/05/23/rebecca-lana-cimato/

To every amazing person and family who supported Rebecca and her family:

For nearly two years, Rebecca fought through treatments, surgeries, complications and hospitalization that most of us could not imagine.

Her husband Ralph, her devoted caregiver, along with her two children, spent the past 21 months by Rebecca’s side — supporting and caring for Rebecca in every way possible after her devastating diagnosis that confounded many physicians along the way. It was your generosity, love and support that helped them keep going.

I am heartbroken to share that Rebecca Cimato died on May 9, 2024, at the age of 40. Her family: Ralph and their children Nick and Gianna, want to express their deepest appreciation for the support, love, and donations you made to help Rebecca and help them support her through her illness. Your love and kindness will never be forgotten.

There will be a memorial service in the coming weeks; I will post an update when details are finalized.

In her final days, Rebecca, along with her husband Ralph, asked that we close donations at this time. They want to honor and recognize those who are still fighting to beat cancer by supporting cancer research efforts to help future cancer patient survival. To support this cause and in lieu of donations to the family or flowers, the Cimatos ask that any donation be redirected to Cancer Research at Moffitt Cancer Center (https://give.moffitt.org) or to a charitable organization of your choice. The Cimato family thanks you from the bottom of their hearts.

Original Fundraiser:

Urgent need for local family!

Short version: One of our community’s young moms, Rebecca Cimato, was diagnosed with cancer of unknown primary three weeks ago. This rare and aggressive cancer is incurable, but treatable. She is in the hospital battling three critical complications. Any support (donations, meal train) for this young family is appreciated as they traverse this devastating news and try to balance her care, childcare and insurmountable medical costs.

Long version: Rebecca Cimato is 38 years old; she grew up in Sanibel. Rebecca and her husband Ralph have two children in The Sanibel School: Gianna (age 6) and Nicky (age 10). Ralph is self-employed and works as a contractor on the island; last year Rebecca was a co-leader of the Girl Scout Daisy troop for kindergarten and first graders.

Three weeks ago, after 6 weeks of shoulder pain, Rebecca got an MRI. The results were not at all what anyone suspected. Rebecca had a large tumor in her cervical spine that had nearly severed an entire vertebrae, which left her at high risk of spinal cord injury. She’s been in a neck and body brace since.

In preparing for emergency surgery, Rebecca got full body imaging that showed this cancer was not limited to her spine, but there were tumors that had metastasized throughout her body into nearly every organ, as well as bones. Rebecca had more tumors in her lungs than the doctors could count; the scans showed a 10cm lesion in her liver, which she was told would only have about four more weeks to function if it did not improve. The oncologist saw cancer in her stomach, pancreas, small intestine, colon and bones. The day before Rebecca was shopping for back to school supplies for her kids and the next day she learned her body was riddled with cancer — news that came out of the blue.

Rebecca was diagnosed with cancer of unknown primary (CUP) — a rare disease in which malignant (cancer) cells are found in the body but the place the cancer began is not known. It is extremely aggressive and accounts for just 2% of cancer diagnoses.

Last weekend Rebecca was admitted to intensive care with a complete bowel blockage. She has not eaten in seven days. Surgeons are unable to operate to alleviate the blockage because of her compromised spine. 

She is now receiving intensive chemo at the moment, with hope and desperation that the broad spectrum chemo will help shrink the three most critical of her metastases to extend her life.

The Cimato’s are a local family who have had incurred more medical bills in the last month than many people will in their lifetime. 

Any donations will go to directly helping this family stay on their feet, continue medical care for Rebecca and cover basic needs for the children.

If anyone wants to participate in a meal train for the family (either by making a meal or having one delivered from a restaurant), please sign-up using this link: 

https://mealtrain.com/2e13d8

Meals can be dropped off at the Community Church or sent by delivery through GrubHub. Link contains all info needed.

All contributions and prayers are incredibly appreciated . Updates on Rebecca’s health will be posted every few days. 

Gratitude and blessings to all.