A Parklands woman is desperately seeking help for an operation and medication as she battles cancer for the second time.
Tanya da Silva Ferreira, 45, has a 13-year-old son and 22-year-old daughter, and she says she wants to be around for key moments in their lives.
Tanya appeared in the Tabletalk last year when she spoke about her battle with invasive ductal breast cancer.
In 2012, following her diagnosis, Tanya founded a non-profit organisation Breast Cancer Awareness South Africa (BCASA) to support others fighting breast cancer.
In 2013 – following 28 radiation treatments, a double mastectomy and hysterectomy – Tanya was given the “all-clear” from doctors, but preventative treatment and check-ups followed.
Being cancer-free, she says, is “not as easy as overcoming the flu”.
Then, on November 24 last year, just two months after she lost her mother to cancer, a call from her doctor changed her life: her cancer had returned and had spread to other parts of her body including the lymph nodes.
Already crippled by medical bills from her first fight with cancer, Tanya has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise R1.2 million to pay for a “life-saving” operation in October and to cover medication, scans, blood tests and doctors’ visits. So far she has raised R41 700.
She sent Tabletalk proof of receipts for medication that costs nearly R25 000 a month.
She also has outstanding bills for scans costing nearly R1600 each, blood tests and doctors’ visits.
But Tanya says faith, hope and love have kept her going.
“My children and my husband help me stay positive and strong and I cannot make their lives all about cancer. This time it will be about memories to last a lifetime,” she says.
If you would like to help Tanya Da Silva Ferreira contact her at 062 862 2102 or click here.
