Women We’ve Helped- Rosalina

Grant Recipient: Rosalina

Rosalina is kind, funny, hopeful, optimistic, and has a ‘keep going’ attitude.

Diagnosis: Ductal carcinoma

Treatment: Radiation, surgery, hormonal

Grant used for: Housing costs

Used to Pre-Paying Her Bills

Before she was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma, Rosalina was the type of person who would pay her bills as soon as she received them or sometimes even prepay them. She didn’t earn much, but she worked hard and was able to give her two young daughters a home full of love. However, when the 42-year-old single mom underwent radiation treatment and surgery for her cancer, she was no longer able to work. Without her job, the bills began piling up.

No Miracles This Christmas

After she stopped working, Rosalina spent her quickly diminishing money to pay her rent, but this left her with little left over for the everyday expenses of life. Her care coordinator at her cancer treatment center explains that Rosalina is struggling to afford food for her family, personal items, and gas so that she can keep traveling to her cancer treatment appointments.

Her care coordinator tells us of how Rosalina received a letter from the state disability agency in December. She was so happy, thinking that this was going to be her first disability payment. Now she would finally be able to buy her daughters Christmas gifts! Instead, when she opened the envelope what she found was a denial. It seems that her paperwork was not entered into the state’s system on time.

Money for All the Little Things

While Rosalina works to begin receiving disability payments, we were happy to step in and provide her with a grant to help her cover her housing expenses. With this big bill out of the way, Rosalina will have the funds to buy all the necessary things in life, like groceries, gasoline, and personal care products. So often, we meet women in active cancer treatment who are working so hard to keep up with their bills that they cannot afford to buy all the little things that we take for granted, like shampoo and clothing for their growing children. We hope that our grant lets Rosalina cover all these little expenses that can mean so much to maintaining a normal life during a very abnormal time.