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    • Utah mother who started GoFundMe page for her own funeral dies at 30
    Washington

    Utah mother who started GoFundMe page for her own funeral dies at 30

    Madoc Meredith Posted on

    A Utah mother who started a GoFundMe page for her own funeral has died after a two-year battle with terminal cancer.

    Erika Diarte-Carr, 30, died Friday, according to her cousin Angelique Rivera. As a single mother, Carr raised two children, seven-year-old Jeremiah and five-year-old Aaliyah, in Ogden, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City.

    “She joined her mother Sylvia, her brother JJ and her uncles Chava and Loui on the other side. She fought a long and hard battle. She was strong and held on as long as she could for her babies,” Rivera wrote on Facebook .

    According to her GoFundMe page, Carr was diagnosed with stage 4 small cell lung cancer on May 7, 2022, when doctors discovered that multiple tumors had metastasized throughout her body.

    On January 17, 2024, she was later diagnosed with Cushing’s syndrome, a rare condition that occurs due to excessively high levels of the hormone cortisol. She subsequently suffered from several underlying problems, including rapid weight gain, swelling, muscle and bone loss, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and moon face.

    In the GoFundMe, Carr said these words from her doctor kept running through her head: “I hope you have a good support system at home because you’re going to need it, you have a long and hard road ahead of you.”

    Carr has three months left to live in September

    On Sept. 18, an oncologist gave Carr a life expectancy of just three months, which added the burden of planning her own funeral, according to a GoFundMe update.

    “I was given three months to live. Three months to spend with my babies and my loved ones. “Three months to make the most of the time I have left,” Carr wrote. “Over the next few months I need to make sure my kids are okay while I’m away. I now face the most difficult task of planning my own funeral.”

    Although she doesn’t typically accept help from others, Carr said the dire situation forced her to seek as much financial support as possible. Her prognosis prevented her from working because she had no life insurance. She said she hopes to raise about $5,000 for funeral costs and more to “leave something behind for my babies.”

    “I’ve been ashamed and embarrassed that people have learned the truth, that I’ve kept this a secret for as long as I could, but the physical effects are starting to take over and I can’t hide it any longer,” she wrote .

    GoFundMe surpasses $1 million

    In an Oct. 3 update, Carr thanked everyone who donated to her GoFundMe page, which has raised more than $1,180,000 as of Monday evening.

    She said she would use the funds to plan a big family trip that would leave her children with “memories that will last a lifetime.”

    “Otherwise, I can promise you that your help will ensure that my children remain financially stable for the rest of their lives as I put everything into a trust fund for them,” Carr wrote.

    Carr thanked the donors for making a positive impact on the lives of their children.

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    Madoc Meredith
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