Rally for Norma: Help Us Fight Melanoma and Injustice!

My family and I are attempting to fundraise on behalf of my parents.

My mom, Norma, has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma that has spread to her lungs, breast, liver, spleen, and spine.

She went undiagnosed at Farmington Hospital by another doctor who read her tests and scans and didn’t catch any of it. Mom sought help over and over again due to being in pain, unable to eat or keep food in, and losing 40 pounds in approximately 3 months, all the while being told to just keep her previously scheduled appointments. My mom had recently already defeated a rare throat and mouth cancer as well. Norma is not a smoker, drinker, or drug user. She does not use tanning beds, won’t stay out in the sun, and wears sunscreen religiously. There’s no action she took to cause this unless it has been caused by Coldwater Creek.

Norma is a victim of Coldwater Creek in Florissant, MO, and unknowingly, like so many others that lived near it, spent her summers playing in a creek that contained radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project and the effort to build the first atomic bomb during World War 2. We suspect this is why she has been afflicted with so many complications and rare illnesses. Diagnosis includes Lupus as well.

To make an already difficult battle even more difficult, Humana denied her the treatment that would be the most effective at fighting such an aggressive diagnosis. Mom has now been left to utilize a much weaker and less effective medication that may not be able to make an impact on the cancers. Makes you wonder if they won’t cover this treatment for my mom and her situation, who do they cover it for?!?!

With insurance doing what they are, medical costs are already beginning to come in. My parents are both retired and manage a small goat farm in Bismarck, MO.

Goal amount was set based solely on the approximate out of pocket cost for the necessary treatment but does not include other expenses. We have a large goal of being able to cover the treatment that she needs and will give her the best chance to fight this (the one her doctors said she needed that insurance denied her). We also are seeking to fundraise for immediate needs they are experiencing. Small things like gas back and forth to the city, food for my dad to eat on the run, protein shakes for mom because she’s unable to eat hardly at all, are all expenses that begin to add up.

Norma will have treatments on Mondays for the less effective medication, she will have a PET scan on 12/30/24 to identify all the specific areas that are affected, and home health will be in and out of the home helping care for her after having a drain port placed in her lungs to drain fluid off as she had been accumulating around 1000 mL of fluid on her lungs within a day or two.

Any help that can be provided would be so beneficial for my parents as they tackle this battle for her. We are attempting to organize a benefit for fundraising for her as well, but this was the easiest way to spread the word to help them cover immediate needs and begin addressing medical bills. Donations would be so amazing and appreciated, and all proceeds from GoFundMe and any benefits will go to my parents for caring for Norma during this time.