Help Colette with Cancer Treatment Expenses

Hello friends, family, and coworkers. 

It goes against my every being as an independent woman to ask for financial help but that is what I must do today. This summer I was diagnosed with a rare form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia. I was treated in hospital in Austin, Texas for 7 weeks before moving to outpatient in Houston, Texas. I was out of hospital for less than a week when I suffered a major brain bleed. If not for a missed appointment phone call from my new doctor’s office, and the good sense of my brother Corey to send the EMTs to do a wellness check, I wouldn’t be here today. They found me unresponsive in bed and transferred me to the hospital. Two brain surgeries later and I came out the other side grateful to be alive. 


I’m currently a patient of MD Anderson Cancer Center. It is a world renowned treatment center and exactly where I need to be while my oncologists work to find a cure for my Leukemia. Unfortunately, because I am in Houston, TX, I am thousands of miles away from my friends and family in Canada who I would normally lean on for an ordeal like this. The surgeries and chemotherapy have left me very weak and in need of a caregiver.


Because I have been off work so long, I am now responsible for my own health insurance costs which are near $700 a month.  I have thousands in copays and deductibles and I now have the added expenses of paying for an expensive apartment near the hospital, Uber rides to and from hospital a couple times a week, and paying for a 24/7caregiver ( a requirement by my doctors ). The cost of a full time caregiver comes with a price tag of 11,000 to 18,000 a month when going through a reputable service.  


No one has any answers on timelines and I must reach remission before I am eligible for a bone marrow transplant. I am humbly asking if you might be able to donate to help me keep up with all the costs of fighting this battle. Any amount, however big or small, will be appreciated more than you can ever know. It will allow me to focus on the task at hand which is to beat this cancer and not have to focus on the stress of mounting debt. 


Much love to you all,

Colette Ding