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20th December 2016
12:10am GMT
If you're a lover of good coffee in Dublin, you're probably familiar with Rashel Winn.
She's the cheery Seattle native who you'll normally see whipping up magical creations behind the counter at The Fumbally – a seriously sound individual who's never too busy for the chats, no matter how manic things are around her.
What you might not have realised, however, is that behind that trademark smile and upbeat demeanour, Rashel has been fighting a private battle since spring of last year – when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
After nearly a year of treatment, the situation worsened in late December when an infection forced doctors to pause a previously successful round of chemotherapy.
And since then, it's been pretty rough. According to her father, Eric Winn:
She has been between St Luke's and St Vincent's hospitals in Dublin for the past three weeks with tubes in both kidneys to help them to stay "clean", and to get her body to a point where she can handle the upcoming radiation scheduled for the end of March, continuing for five weeks.
Her oncologist words to me last week were straight and sharp, "Eric, it doesn't look good".
These words, he said, prompted him into action – and yesterday, he set up a GoFundMe page that's quite phenomenally raised just under $20,000 in just 16 hours.
Eric says that, despite the oncologist's worrying prognosis, the family are remaining positive and optimistic, and wish to be with Rashel so that they can share this with her:
It is with great appreciation and gratitude that we raise these funds as soon as possible to help us with the matter and to surround Rashel with her immediate family and very high optimism with the alternatives about to be introduced to her.
I know many of you reading this know the difficulty going through seeing your sick child suffering.
We are not giving up hope with Rashel, on the contrary, regardless of what a doctor says. The funding we are looking for I strongly believe will help get her well, not only mentally, but more importantly, physically, with the hopes that the alternative methods bring.
You can donate to Rashel's page here.
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