Pacifica Woman Needs Help With Cancer Treatment Bills

Valerie Hakwins says she persevered while attending community college classes and she knows she can beat this yet again.

She's talking about her battle with cervical and ovarian cancer, which started in 2007 with five surgeries and undergoing countless rounds of outpatient chemotherapy treatments in a two-year period, all while taking classes at Skyline College.

She was in remission for a little more than four years and was able to graduate from Skyline in 2009. But just this past October, she was diagnosed again with Stage 1A2 cervical cancer. 

She had surgery on Nov. 8 at UCSF Medical Center and her oncologist was very optimistic that the surgery to remove the cancerous cells would be successful and the chemotherapy treatments following would ensure remission.

However, surgery was tough and unfortunately was not 100 percent successful. The pathology report did not show clear margins which indicates the cancer is still there. She did find out that it has not traveled to her lymphatic system and that is wonderful news. She will undergo more surgery on Dec. 23 to hopefully get the remaining cancer cells.

But the medical bills are piling up. She has turned to the crowdfunding website GoFundMe.com to raise $4,000 to pay them. Generous friends and family have already pitched-in almost $2,300.

"In the past when I was battling cancer I was a full-time college student working part-time and my grandfather was able to cover all of my medical costs. Fast forward to today and my grandfather is no longer with us. I work full-time as does my husband, but unfortunately our budget took a hard hit earlier this year when he was laid off," she writes on GoFundMe.

Hawkins and her husband now have to move in with her dad because they can no longer afford their apartment with the mounting medical bills.

"Each lab test, PET scan and office visit cost money that right now we don't have," she said. "We can't even buy a Christmas tree or presents for our families."

If you can help Hawkins reach her goal, please click on the link above to donate. 

GoFundMe is a Patch partner.