A young, single Utah mother of two young children was told by her doctors that she had three months to live after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Erika Diarte-Carr, 33, is now planning her own funeral and raising money to leave a trust fund for her children: Jeremiah, 7, and Aaliyah, 5.

Diarte-Carr was in the hospital in May 2022 treating a shoulder injury when she learned she had stage 4 small cell lung cancer, a rare form of cancer, she wrote on a GoFundMe page. The doctor informed her that there were multiple tumors that had metastasized to other parts of her body, including her skeletal system, where the tumor that was causing her shoulder pain was located.

The woman began treatment for her cancer before being given more devastating news last January when she was diagnosed with Cushing’s syndrome, which is caused by an excess of the stress hormone cortisol and has symptoms such as weight gain, weak muscles and high blood pressure .

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Erika Diarte-Carr, 33, and her children: Jeremiah, 7, and Aaliyah, 5. (GoFundMe)

She said Cushing’s led to several other underlying health problems, including rapid weight gain, swelling, muscle and bone loss, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

According to the National Institutes of Health, Cushing’s is extremely rare. Only about 40 to 70 people out of a million suffer from it.

After her diagnosis, she continued to work full-time and only had to take time off two months early for surgeries, biopsies, appointments, and radiation and chemotherapy treatments. But her deteriorating health eventually left her unable to work and has now been unemployed for months.

Diarte-Carr said she had an appointment with her oncologist on Sept. 18 when she was told her treatments weren’t working and she only had three months to live. She then decided to stop her treatments and spend the remaining time with her children.

Diarte-Carr was hospitalized in May 2022 for treatment of a shoulder injury when she learned she had stage 4 small cell lung cancer. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

“I still have three months to live. Three months to spend with my babies and my loved ones,” she wrote on the GoFundMe page. “3 months to make the most of the time I have left. 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.” “

Because she hasn’t been able to work for the past few months, she says she hasn’t saved any money or gotten life insurance.

“I have looked into the costs and need to raise about $5,000 to ensure the funeral costs are covered. “I also want to leave something behind for my babies,” she said.

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Diarte-Carr was told on September 18 that he only had three months to live. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

The GoFundMe page was created shortly after Diarte-Carr learned of her diagnosis when she was still 30 years old. She has far exceeded her goal of $5,000 and wants to leave the rest in a trust fund for her children.

As of Monday morning, the GoFundMe page had raised more than $1 million.

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“Any funds that exceeded my funeral expenses will now be put into a trust fund for my babies,” Diarte-Carr wrote. “This way I can leave something behind for them and still make sure they’re okay when they grow up.”

“You are my whole life, light and soul. My children are my fight and what keeps me going,” she said.