I have to live for my family! Without your help, Kasia has no chance against cancer!

Breaking news I am begging for help! I won’t survive without the treatment.

My health condition is getting worse day by day. The tumors have been growing fast and making my life miserable. I have nosebleeds every day. Chemotherapy didn’t make me bald because I didn’t undergo any. It is pointless when you have melanoma. You also won’t see a scar after breast amputation because I kept them. Every time I look at them, I cry. The breasts that fed my children are deformed by tumors now. 

You also won’t see the pain I feel every time I breathe because melanoma destroys my ribs from the inside.  I want you to see me as a human who wants to BE ALIVE. 

In the springtime, I want to grow plants with my daughter on the balcony, go to a kindergarten for a parent-teacher conference… I know these are the little things, but for me, they are huge. 

Kasia

Mother's Day in 2021 was one of the happiest days of my life - I got my first card from my daughter, and then there was ice cream and a playground - total happiness and carefree.  A day later I heard the diagnosis - malignant melanoma of the mucous membranes, a very rare and very aggressive cancer that accounts for only 2-3% of all melanoma cases. 

There was not a moment to lose, facial surgery and 4 weeks of complementary radiation therapy. Our relative peace lasted only until March of this year, only to hear in the next follow-up examination - there is a recurrence. This time, however, the cancer had managed to give metastasis, so surgery was out of the question. I started systemic treatment with immunotherapy, unfortunately, after two infusions I developed severe toxicity. Immunotherapy treatment was discontinued and I spent the following months treating its side effects. During this time, the cancer spread to more organs - breast, subcutaneous tissue, peritoneum. At the beginning of September, with great hope, I proceeded with a clinical examination. Unfortunately, after the first check-up, it is already clear that the treatment has not been not working. The tumors have been growing on average one centimeter per month and new ones keep appearing, even in the bones. At this point it is no longer even possible to count them and the diagnosticians describe them as "numerous".   

I have been tested for more than 300 known genetic mutations unfortunately none of them is present in my tumor, which deprives me of further treatment options. And in fact at this point treatment options in Poland are finished for me.

The only hope for me is TIL (Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes) therapy, which involves taking a tumor, separating T lymphocytes from it and then artificially multiplying them and administering them to the body. This is a relatively new, but  very promising method of treating tumors on an individual basis. One of the pioneers of this method is a hospital in Israel, which has priced the treatment at a cost that is completely out of our reach. 

That is why I am asking for your help. Every donation, every zloty is worth a lifetime to me! The cancer is very aggressive and I do not have a moment to lose.

Over the past 17 months I have had 11 CT scans with contrast, 3 MRIs, 4 weeks of radiation therapy, 5 biopsies, craniofacial surgery and the number of blood works and intravenous cannulas I cannot count. But I am able to go through much more to live!

Please help me!