She is a passionate mom, musician, artist and children’s book author.
Now, Lora Bensmiller is in the battle of her life for her life.
Bensmiller has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a painful bone and blood and cancer, and her friends and supporters have started a GoFundMe campaign to help the family with expenses.
“Although the cancer then showed up through her entire body, it is now currently controlled by regular, exhausting, and uncomfortable radiation and chemotherapy,” it states on the campaign page.
“The inoperable orange-size tumour in her pelvis, which is so large doctors considered wiring her pelvis together so the tumour wouldn’t break, is responding to treatment. With her son Joey, husband Mark, and all the children families she helps at school in mind, she fights daily now with every ounce of her being to improve each of the small battlefronts, all with little complaint and a smile and gentle kind words for others.
“With help from an entire team of doctors, nurses and specialists using radiation and chemotherapy, Lora is at a place now where she can be considered for a bone marrow transplant, which is the long-term solution required to rectify the problem.
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With Mark taking leave from his welding job to help care for Joey, and because Bensmiller’s mobility is so severely impacted that she can’t even walk and collapses, frequently exhausted, friends started the campaign with a goal of reaching $10,000. Bensmiller left the school year early in May because of the pain, and friends say if you know Bensmiller, it has to be a lot of pain.
“I was so worried about them (children) because many of them are special needs and I had been with them all year,” said Bensmiller.
In September, Bensmiller’s medical EI runs out. Mark’s EI won’t last forever, their savings are running out, and MSP will not cover the $100/day cost for the minimum of nine weeks (possibly up to three months) recovery stay at Jean Barber House (which thankfully includes food), the facility her mom will stay with her at after the doctors re-install and reboot Bensmiller’s blood and bone system after the painful bone marrow transplant.
The already subsidized bill for recovery stay could be anywhere from $6,000 to $8,000 plus travel, and as Lora and Mark are already without income coming in, they are already struggling to not lose their new home with their seven-year-old child.
She has undergone extensive invasive testing that permitted extraction of stem cells to be propagated then reintroduced into her own body in October during the marrow transplant procedure.
If you would like to make a donation, do it at https://www.gofundme.com/healing-help-for-lora.