Audrey Gomez
When Kerry Claasen Modin learned her friend Raquel Gonzalez-Ndzeidze, 33, needed to raise money for cancer treatment, she suggested putting on a concert.
“I said, ‘Heck yeah, let’s do it!’,” Gonzalez-Ndzeidze said.
Gonzalez-Ndzeidze and Modin have been friends since seventh grade. They graduated from Sweet Home High School in 2000.
“Sweet Home is such a small town,” Modin said. “A lot of the girls in our class were just all friends. Raquel and I stay in touch. You put yourself in her shoes and you just want to do everything you can to help.”
Gonzalez-Ndzeidze is seeking treatment for a rare form of ovarian cancer, for which treatment is not available in the United States. She needs to raise $65,000 for a treatment program offered in Mexico.
Modin contacted KRKT radio to ask for suggestions.
“Everything just fell into place,” Modin said. “They were just eager to help. It worked out well.”
The concert is scheduled for July 24 at South Pacific Auto Sales in Albany, which agreed to sponsor the event. Country artists Trevor Tagle, who also is a Sweet Home grad, Lexi Tucker and Sasha Belden don’t know Gonzalez-Ndzeidze or Modin, but they agreed to perform without hesitation.
Modin contacted the performers through Facebook.
“Someone found me on Facebook and asked me to do it,” Tucker said. “(It) sounded like a nice thing to do, so I said I would!”
Tagle, who started performing as a country artist after high school, has done other benefit concerts, he said.
“It’s really amazing to be able to help someone out just by playing a few tunes,” said Tagle, who was a high school state-champion wrestler. “The fund-raisers I’ve done in the past have done very well and raised a lot of money for people, so if it takes 30 minutes of my day to help someone out like this I have no problem saying yes. And it happened to fit perfectly in my schedule, so why not, right?”
The concert is just one of the ways community members have committed to helping Gonzalez-Ndzeidze raise money to treat the rare form of cancer she was diagnosed with in 2014. Last month, Coffee Hut in Sweet Home held a one-day fund-raiser that raised $1,200.
Gonzalez-Ndzeidze’s sister Twyla Gonzalez-Bohrer started a GoFundMe page about a month ago. As of July 13, almost $20,000 had been raised toward the $65,000 cost of treatment.
“I’ve been blown away by people’s generosity and well wishes,” Gonzalez-Ndzeidze said.
ëIncurable cancerí
Gonzalez-Ndzeidze’s struggle with cancer started in 2006 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
She had the tumor removed and thought she was clear.
“They said, you’re good, it’s gone,” Gonzalez-Ndzeidze said.
But later she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and had surgery to remove that.
Now she has a rare form of ovarian cancer, diagnosed last year, for which, she has been told, no treatment exists in the United States.
“I said, ‘I’m not going to go home and just wait,’” Gonzalez-Ndzeidze said.
She went online and searched “incurable cancer” for possible treatments and talked with different doctors about options.
She spent three months doing research before she decided on a treatment plan.
“I have one shot at this so I want to make sure I pick the right place,” she said.
She discovered only two facilities that offer the treatment she chose – one in Germany, the other in Mexico.
The Hope4Cancer Institute in Baja California, Mexico provides “non-toxic alternative treatments” according to its website.
But the $65,000 price tag is not covered by her insurance.
Gonzalez-Ndzeidze and her husband Stephen both worked at Oregon State University. Raquel is on medical leave from her administrative manager position. Stephen was a research scientist at the college; the grant that funded the research he was working on ended in 2014. He has been searching for work in his field of specialty since then.
“It was tough at first to ask for help, but sometimes you have to,” Gonzalez-Ndzeidze said. “When it’s something that can save your life, who wouldn’t?”
Though Gonzalez-Ndzeidze has raised less than half of the cost of treatment, she has already started following part of the program and has lost 100 pounds in the process.
Among the seven principles of the cancer treatment that Hope4Cancer follows is “full-spectrum nutrition,” such as The Gerson Diet.
She has been on Gerson therapy for about 10 months, she said. It involves a plant-based organic diet.
“I am sick, but now I have more energy,” Gonzalez-Ndzeidze said.
She also has started meditation and prayer.
“I’m strong and have a great attitude,” Gonzalez-Ndzeidze said. “But I need to get down there as soon as possible.”
She is looking forward to sharing her story and helping others with similar diagnoses.
“It shows people there are options out there,” Gonzalez-Ndzeidze said. “I want to help people know they can get through it.”