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Stay ahead with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more

Stay ahead with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more

A Utah mother battling terminal cancer has died.

Erika Diarte-Carr, 30, revealed last month that she was raising money on GoFundMe for her own funeral costs and for her children’s future. Her cousin announced that Carr passed away on Saturday (October 12).

“It is with a heavy heart that this is the last update I will provide for my cousin Erika. She has joined her mother Sylvia, her brother JJ and her uncles Chava and Loui on the other side,” her Facebook post began.

“She fought a long and hard battle. She was strong and held on as long as she could for her babies. I know she was so grateful for all your support, love and prayers.”

Carr was a single mother of two children, Jeremiah, seven, and Aaliyah, five. She called them her “whole life, light and soul… and what keeps her going.”

Her original GoFundMe description stated that she had struggled with stage 4 small cell lung carcinoma for the past two years, and doctors gave her a terminal diagnosis. After an appointment with an oncologist on September 18, she no longer planned to continue treatments as she was told they would ‘no longer help’. The doctors told her she had a maximum of three months left.

“Three months to spend with my babies and loved ones. Three months to make the most of the time I have left,” she wrote at the time. “Over the next few months I have to make sure my kids are okay after I’m gone. I am now faced with the most difficult thing: planning my own funeral.”

The mother’s goal was to reach $5,000, but as of Monday the number is over $1 million.

“It happened overnight. I never expected that,” she says ABC News after seeing the number reach $900,000. “I never expected there would be a big funeral service or that many people would help me.”

She added, “With the way things have gone, I’m just in shock… just really grateful for everyone and everything that’s been there.”

Carr also thanked her “amazing medical team” for their continued support.

The single mother mentioned on her GoFundMe page that she received her diagnosis during an emergency room visit with a shoulder injury in May 2022. She wrote that the doctor told her, “I hope you have a good support system at home because you ‘If you need it, you have a long and hard journey ahead of you.’

“The doctor then told me that there were multiple tumors that had spread to other parts of my body, including my skeleton, and that’s how we were able to find the tumor that was causing my shoulder pain,” Erika continued.

“At that moment the damage had already been done. In that moment, mine and my children’s entire lives were changed forever, as well as that of everyone around us.”

In January 2024, she was diagnosed with Cushing’s syndrome — a condition that causes the body to “make too much of the hormone cortisol over a long period of time,” according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

“Since my diagnosis, I have managed to continue working full-time, initially only taking two months off for surgeries, biopsies, appointments, radiation and chemotherapy treatments,” she added on her GoFundMe page.

“And that while I am still a full-time mother. I have a GREAT support system, but over time it has taken a major financial, emotional, mental and physical toll on all of us.”