You don't know me...but stop for a moment and look at me:

Like a mother to her dream child…

Like a daughter or son for their beloved mother…

like a granddaughter to the grandmother who spoiled you as a child…

I am seriously ill and need your support!

I accept it with humility because I believe that everything in life happens for a reason!

Stay.

Let me tell you a little about myself.

My entire life so far – the years of early adulthood, adulthood, motherhood – has been filled with constant care for my loved ones and hard work.

I never spared any effort. As a petite woman, I worked in a construction materials warehouse, often single-handedly unloading heavy trucks full of cement bags. I deeply believed that honest work was the foundation, and that all personal desires, dreams of travel and quiet relaxation, could be postponed. My children, home, and family were paramount.

Everything fell into place naturally until a time of well-deserved respite arrived. My daughters had grown up, started their own families, and I became the proud grandmother of four wonderful little ones. It seemed that this was the beginning of a most beautiful chapter, one in which my husband and I would finally be able to see the world beyond the confines of our daily duties. Instead, disease came.

For the past three years, hospitals, oncology offices, and treatment rooms have become my only home. Ovarian cancer is mercilessly sapping my strength. So far, to maintain my health and life, I've undergone six cycles of powerful chemotherapy (carboplatin, paclitaxel, and bevacizimab), then extensive surgery, complicated by metastases, followed by another 12 cycles of treatment and an Olaparib program.

But every time I said goodbye to one stage with relief, after just a few/several dozen weeks the nightmare returned with double the force.

Today I faced a wall that I cannot overcome on my own.. To be able to undertake the next upcoming treatment—so-called red chemo therapy, extremely aggressive and toxic to the devastated body—I must urgently strengthen my vital forces. Doctors are blunt: without this preparation, my weakened body simply won't survive the next treatment.

I look at my family: my mother, my husband, and my daughters, who have been an invaluable rock throughout this entire time, and my heart breaks. I see their worry and silent tears, their helplessness and that paralyzing fear in their eyes.

I truly believe that my time hasn't come yet and that I will be healthy. I will be able to take care of my mother and the rest of my troubled family.

Throughout my treatment, we sold everything we could and hit a wall.

Several times a week, we travel over 200 km to the Krakow Institute of Oncology and the clinic in Skawina, which supports my body in this fight. Furthermore, purchasing medications and supplements is a huge financial burden for my entire family, as they are always with me through all my hardships and financial obligations.

In the quietest moments of the night, an intrusive, painful thought appears in my head: „Why would the world save an elderly woman when there are so many little children around who are just starting their lives?”. I myself have supported their fundraisers many times, considering it a great injustice that young lives are lost prematurely.

It's unimaginably difficult for me to ask strangers for support. But I have no other option. Every penny, even the smallest, donated to strengthen my body and receive specialized care is a step towards health. Without your help, the doctors leave me with no illusions. Please help me save my light before it goes out for good.

Even though the calendar mercilessly counts the passing years and my body bears the marks of hard, physical work and a devastating illness, I will tell you something very important:

Despite the passage of time, nothing has faded in my heart. I'm still the same girl in my twenties, with a thousand dreams in my head and an endless thirst for life. I want to watch my grandchildren grow up, I want to hold my daughters' hands, and I want to be with my mother and husband. My plans haven't changed—I simply really, really want to live.

With great gratitude for every heart shown,

Bernadette