Cancer patients turn to the web for financial help



TACOMA -- When the doctor says the word cancer to you, everything changes. The emotional pain, the physical pain, the treatment and the cost, it all consumes you.

But one local woman, she sees cancer as a blessing.

“I feel like I was chosen to go through this,” says Crystal Cherry.

At just 35-years-old Cherry was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. The mother of three just finished up her last round of chemotherapy.

“I was chosen because I am the one who can handle it, I have the strength to push through.”

Part of that fight is financial. Like so many people, Cherry turned to crowd sourcing sites, like Go Fund Me, to help.

“I don’t want the medical and financial part to consumer me,” says Cherry.

According to Go Fund Me, campaigns that specifically mention breast cancer, have raised more than 14 million dollars. Donations for those types of campaigns have gone up 400 percent of the last 4 years. With so many campaigns, it’s hard to tell who is telling the truth.

Go Fund Me says they have a system in place to catch fraud but they cannot monitor the millions of sites.

They say the best thing to do is only donate to people you know or trust.

Here is Cherry's Go Fund Me page.