Cancer?! In this Economy?! Help Carmen beat the Beast.

Hey everyone, Emma and Marisa here reaching out on behalf of Carmen Melero.

On May 13th, she had a biopsy done and on May 16th, she got the call. She was diagnosed with Uterine Cancer. Carmen had been having some issues for about a year, and chalked it up to stress, as most folks do. But she trusted her instincts and knew something was wrong. She suffered with a lot of pain and discomfort for about a year and finally was able to see a specialist from her primary car doctor. With the news, she was instantly referred to Az Oncology and given a breakdown of treatment options available. With her current stage and because of her early detection, the best course of action is a full hysterectomy, which is scheduled for July 31st.

Carmen knows she is very fortunate to have some health insurance right now, but there are still out of pocket expenses due when she arrives at the hospital as well as missed wages, as she will be recovering for 8-12 weeks, potentially more if it is a more complicated. We are still unsure of additional progression but Carmen is annoyingly optimistic. You know how she can be.

As many of you know, Carmen has spent the better part of last year working 3 jobs with 3 amazing local employers after leaving a toxic corporate environment. She has said often that she has never been happier wit her day to day life now, even with how expensive Tucson and just daily things are becoming now. "I've made so many incredible connections recently. This will be but a bump in the road. It just... sucks."

Carmen is doing everything she can over the next couple months to prepare her body and spirit for this, but a donation of any amount can certainly help. We have a goal set of $15,000 for the out of pocket medical expenses, to assist with loss of wages while in recovery, and any incidentals along the way.

If we are lucky enough to surpass that goal, we know Carmen would want to pass the help along to help the next person, and will be donating to cancer research. Thank you so much! We appreciate it.