Cancer. Who knew a word could hold such life altering, powerful yet terrible meaning? If not you, someone you may know has been affected by cancer. My name is Alyssa Mingo, and my family has been and currently are victims of such a horrible disease. Donald Mingo Sr, Army veteran of 22 years was unexpectedly diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2012, then passed away a few short weeks later. This was my Grandaddy, my father’s father. This brought on much heartbreak, confusion, emotional and financial distress. We could not figure out how something so life-threatening can lie undetected, grow so fast and change our lives so drastically before being able to grasp the fact that he even had cancer. My family and I never imagined a life with cancer. But now we are living it.
Christine Mingo, mother of four (two currently attending Clear Lake High) and wife of Donald Mingo Jr, was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer that has metastasized (traveled) to her liver in February 2014, just two years after losing her father. She was only 40 when she received such devastating and shocking news. Those words were the last thing we had ever expected to hear. Devastating information like this can easily raise questions, cause anger, confusion and fear beyond imaginable. My father, younger siblings, mother and I have experienced this whirl of emotions in different ways, but we are going through this together as a team.
As a family,we carry ourselves with love, hope and positivity, and with this we are taking every step necessary to beat cancer both physically and mentally. Living with cancer makes us look at life differently, realizing that stressing on the little things isn’t worth our time and energy, but instead we should appreciate every moment life has to offer. Our mother, being the strong woman that she is took this as a challenge in life, she once said to me in UCSF after an extensive surgery, “I’m going to prove to you, your brother and sisters that cancer does NOT mean death, it is a fight for life”. She is taking every step necessary to beat this strenuous disease which includes many sessions of chemotherapy, four rounds to be exact. Three rounds consisted of six sessions and this last one consisted of eighteen. Many surgeries including, one on her colon, four on her liver, three port replacements and a hernia that developed from the several abdominal surgeries she’s had in such a short amount of time. All of this just within the past two years!
Experiencing chemo first hand is very difficult, while its killing the bad it is also destroying the good. One chemotherapy session alone is over $29,000. Fortunately insurance covers the majority of it, but not all. Medical bills include scans, medications, surgeries, nutritional needs etc. Consider that dozens of other families in Lake County are experiencing cancer at the same time. So contribute to organizations such as Sponsoring Survivorship that help local cancer patients and their families cover the financial burden. And look for other ways to provide support, such as Go Fund Me accounts. It’s a fight we can fight together and it helps in more ways than you know.
www.gofundme.com/Mingofamily
