Leilani's story

Aloha,

My name is Kelsey I created this page on behalf of my mother Leilani Santos. Lei grew up in Waimanalo and lived on Oahu for a majority of her life. She has four children (Devyn-28, Kelsey-24, Wyatt-17, and Triston-9). As a single mother, she raised my siblings and I for 12 years until she met her husband Todd in 2009. In 2014, Lei and Todd decided to move to Las Vegas for better opportunities. Ever since then they have prospered and have been able to give their children everything they've hoped for. She has dedicated her life to being an amazing mother and an even better role model. If you know my mom personally, you know she is the sweetest and most giving person on this planet. She is constantly putting everyone else's needs before her own. During the past 17 years she has become a dedicated medical assistant. Ten of those years of work took place at Kaiser Permanente in Hawaii and has continued at Southwest Medical in Las Vegas.

She noticed a lump on the back of her head in 2019, but was unable to do a biopsy due to COVID-19 until February 18, 2022. She was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma on March 2, 2022. This news devastated our entire family and despite it all she continued to keep a positive attitude and remained strong while telling me the news over the phone. On March 17th, she received her results and met with a oncologist to discuss her treatment plan. The results stated it had spread to her thyroid and lungs. The oncologist has scheduled an MRI on April 7th to see if it has spread anywhere else in her brain. If the MRI results come back positive, she will have to start radiation on top of the chemotherapy. She started her first treatment of chemotherapy on March 24th to treat her thyroid and lungs.

Throughout this entire process Leilani has been in high spirits and appreciative of all the support she has been receiving from her family and friends. My mother has been the rock of our family and continues to be. This condition hasn't only been taking a toll on her physically but also mentally as she been concerned about the number of bills that will be piling up in the future. I just want to relieve some stress which is why we are asking for donations to help cover her current and future medical bills. If it comes to a point where she is unable to work, the funds from this page will be assisting with her living expenses as well. Any amount of donations will be greatly appreciated. Please also help us out by reposting this page so we are able to reach more people and to help bring awareness to her story.

We will be updating this page throughout her journey.

Mahalo,

The Santos Ohana