Taress Alexis, daughter of Matriarch of Smum'iem Marilyn James, single mother of Nava and Rocco, and the deadliest of aunties, was recently diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

In September 2023, Taress began feeling unwell, eventually, she went to the hospital where they discovered a 2kg mass on her uterus. She was admitted immediately and taken for surgery, where they discovered further growths on her small intestine, colon and liver.

Since the removal of the growth on her uterus and a length of her small intestine and colon, she has recovered well and is continuing to do well.

Taress has recently been put on palliative chemo, as the cancer she has is aggressive and spreading rapidly. She has started chemo treatments and looks to traditional and alternative medicines to beat the 13% chance that is given when diagnosed with cancer at this stage.

For obvious reasons, Taress is unable to work during this time, and while everyone remains hopeful she has started to take steps to complete the daunting task of putting her personal affects in order for both her and her children. With an undefined time of how long they will keep her on chemo treatments, we are calling to people to help her during this time.

We need mutual aid to support the following items:

• Basic day-to-day expenses: Mortgage, Utilities, Food for her and her children, expenses for her children (school, extracurricular activities)

• Alternative medicine and treatments- Taress is working with herbalists and acupuncturists and requires steady doses of various medicines like reishi mushrooms, Turkey Tail, Milk Thistle, Organic berries (for antioxidants), and other natural medicines.

• Travel Expenses- Taress needs to make multiple long-distance trips for treatment, even more local treatments can be expensive in gas.

• Caretaker's- Taress's last treatment she was in bed for about a week, therefore family and friends have created a caretaker support network which also can become costly to take time off work and travel. She'd like to compensate people for their support.

Let's come together and support Taress in her battle against these cancer cells. Let's support her so she doesn't have to stress about her expenses and focus on getting better and spending time with her children, family, and friends.

Lim Limpt

** This platform still charges about a 3% processing fee so if you don't need a tax receipt feel free to e-transfer Taress directly: [email protected] ***