A terminally ill woman from Utah has died after her online appeal for support for her young children raised more than $1m.
Erika Diarte-Carr, 30, described being “ashamed and embarrassed for people to know the truth” about her contracting small cell lung cancer (SCLC) after she kept it a secret, but was facing a “major financial burden”.
In June, the mother of two posted an appeal on the GoFundMe website. She said: “I’ve never been good at accepting or asking for help but… I am no longer able to physically work”.
Ms Carr said she was diagnosed in May 2022 with stage 4 terminal cancer and then in January 2024 with Cushing Syndrome, a hormone condition that caused weight gain and muscle loss.
She posted that Jeremiah, 7, and Aaliyah, 5, were her “whole life, light and soul,” adding “my children are my fight and what keep me going”.
On 18 September, another update said that she had been given three months to live. “I have decided to discontinue treatments as they will no longer help,” she wrote, adding that she wanted to raise $5,000 (£3,825) to cover her funeral costs and “leave something behind for my babies”.
On Saturday, Ms Carr’s death was confirmed by her cousin in a post on Facebook.
By Tuesday the total raised via GoFundMe topped nearly $1.2m (£918,000).
“She fought a long and hard battle. She was strong and held on as long as she could for her babies. I know she was so thankful for all of your support and love and prayers,” her cousin wrote.
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An update posted on GoFundMe on 3 October – a few days before she died – thanked people for their “love and support” and generous donations.
“Me and the kids are now able to plan one big trip as a family that will leave them with memories that’ll last a lifetime,” Ms Carr wrote.
“I can promise you that your help is going to keep my kids financially stable the rest of their lives as I am putting it all into a trust fund for them.”
It is not clear whether she was able to complete the planned trip before she died.
Cancer Research UK describes small cell lung cancer as making up about one in seven (15%) lung cancers, which tend to spread quite early on.
