MOOSE JAW -- Robert McCurdy and his family are mourning the loss of his wife Kayla, a 32-year-old mother of four who lost her battle against cancer after waging a long war with scleroderma.

A combination of cancer in the lungs and a brain tumour caused countless trips to the hospital, including visits to Regina.

“The surgeon come in, told her that there’s really nothing they can do, she wouldn’t come off the table if they tried to do surgery on her,” Robert said. “They gave her three weeks.”

She was then sent back to Moose Jaw, where she spent the night.

“In the morning, they were talking about getting a hospital bed here and round the clock care so she could be comfortable at home,” said Robert, pausing to collect his emotions. “Not even a couple hours later, she passed.”

Kayla died on Nov. 8 due to a combination of cancer in the lungs and a brain tumour.

One the result of the other

Robert says the cancer was a result of his wife’s scleroderma, a chronic autoimmune disorder she fought for around a decade.

“The scar tissue in the lungs became necrotic, and the necrotic tissue was slowly growing and turned into cancer.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, scleroderma affects the body by hardening the skin and connective tissues.

It most commonly affects women between the ages of 30 and 50. Kayla was diagnosed in her mid 20s.

“Basically her skin was tightening, and her organs were failing slowly,” Robert said. “Her hands were slowly deforming and it was like the bones were breaking very slowly.”

“It was just terrible. She was in so much pain all the time.”

But Robert says his wife always tried to stay positive, but sometimes her condition became too much.

“She tried not to show it, but when she thought nobody was listening she would just cry,” Robert said.

‘She was pretty special’

Kayla is being remembered by Robert and her four children as strong and creative woman who always put her family first.

“She had so many little hobbies on the go, and she would make these amazing creations,” said Robert. “She could paint, she could draw. All kinds of stuff. She took little bricks of clay and made little pumpkin ornaments that look exactly like pumpkins.”

“She was very creative, she could turn anything into something and that’s not me,” said Doris Myers, Kayla’s mother.

“She was a great mom, a wonderful partner for Rob,” Myers said, pausing to hold back her emotions. “I can’t describe her… she was pretty special.”

“She always said that she wasn’t worried about dying, she was fine with it, it happens if it happens, but she was always worried about how it would effect us,” Robert said.

“She told me, ‘you know mom I’m not afraid to die, I’m just afraid of leaving the kids’,” Myers told CTV News.

‘One day at a time’

As the family picks up the pieces of the loss, the kids are back in school and Robert returned to work on Thursday, but there are still some problems the McCurdys need to work through.

“I’m just going to take it one day at a time,” Robert said. “All I can do is just keep going, stay strong for these guys.”

Due to Kayla’s condition, she was unable to get life insurance, meaning even after her death expenses like ambulance trips and other costs still need to be paid.

But with Robert’s time off work to be with his wife, it’s been difficult to keep up.

Those expenses are where money from a fundraising effort originally started to help Kayla will go.

So far around $4,000 has been raised.