Help Miriam with Cancer Treatment & Expenses

Miriam is a 21-year-old student who is diagnosed with vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and aggressive systemic mastocytosis, both severe and genetic.

While attending college, she underwent multiple operations, had an NJ tube in her nose during her freshman year, and had to care for a PICC line from her dorm room. She got sepsis and spent a week alone in the ICU. She had no one to support her.

At this point, her mastocytosis has morphed into mast cell leukemia, which has an incredibly low survival rate. She is still so young and, despite all of the hardship she has faced up until this point, she is still fighting.

Due to how she struggles with nutrition, she faces unsavory and expensive TPN (total parenteral nutrition) supplies, which only will serve as additional stress on her fragile body. Her pain levels are extreme and treatment is hard to endure.

Working was hard before her diagnosis with pre-existing disabilities, but with no other option, she is forced to continue even through her cancer. She has no help; Miriam has to Uber to appointments, manage her central line and meds, and pay for her insurance, copays, and any OTC treatments she needs. She manages all of her own care and still works because if she doesn’t, she won’t be able to support herself. Some days, she simply can’t work, because she is too sick, and there is no relief on those days, only the fear that she might not have enough money to survive.

She currently lives on an air mattress in her ex’s apartment, in a lot of pain due to her living arrangements. She is trying to find a new place to live with a month to do so.

Miriam badly needs financial help with medical bills, and medical transport, as well as to help get all of the treatments she can in order to feel better and get the strength she needs to physically pull off everything she needs to do.

She is an incredibly talented, kind individual who not only wants to survive, but to live, and make the world a better place. It is so expensive to be alive right now as a young person, let alone a sick one with no help. She is a homeschool survivor, graduating at 16 and performing well on the ACT, well enough to begin a pre-med double major in neuro and psych on the highest merit scholarship offered by her school.

While she was able to still attend, Miriam thrived in college. She was forced to leave three years into her education due to her health and she wants nothing more than to get better and go back. She wants to go to grad school for computational neuroscience and clinical research on neurodegenerative disorders. However, her goals and ambitions will go unfulfilled if she can’t afford to live with her diagnosis.

We beseech you to help in any way you can, whether that be donating or sharing this GoFundMe; any dollar amount is appreciated. Thank you so much for your time.