I have documented my journey with the disease, a rare and terminal cancer, cholangiacarcinoma. Please help. I need funds for my funeral. It is a matter of expedience. My bile ducts are blocked and it is a matter of time before liver function ceases. And we also need to put the monies back into Sarah’s Missouri 529 account. We used her money in the first months of my illness. No amount is too small. But time is very key. I need to have this done so that this unbearable process will be made easier (if that can be said) for all of my children. I am using an email I wrote in response to many suggestions of what to do. I find that the answer to a question raised, somewhere else, suffices as the text of this note. The meanings are the same. The goal is the same. I thank you.

I cannot simply call it a scholarship fundraiser. It isn’t. I don’t have the money for a burial. I need money for a burial. I can’t help it if it doesn’t sound attractive. I have to be honest because of the restriction of time. One can file away a request for school fees for a 10th grader. I have been shown, on all tests, that both pathways into my liver are blocked. My eyes are yellow/orange. I have no energy. No surgery, except one which may give a one to five percent chance of hope. No. It’s time to admit that something has to be done, planned, and filed away for the moment.

In this way, pay pal cannot be used. They do not work out of the goodness of their heart. I do not have a funeral home picked out yet so using a charging company (pay pal) which will then send funds to an as yet unpicked charging company (without a price set) puts us at risk of the funeral home deciding on the fee after the fact. Therefore, even if there is 1 dollar left over they will keep it instead of simply paying what I have used and sending the rest of Sarah’s Missouri 529.

There is no medicine yet formed on this earth which will go inside my body and relieve the blockage. I make this statement with full knowledge that medical doctors can read this post and comment. So, holistic and non-western medicine is not an option. I thank you, as always, for your suggestions. But, sad to say, the time for debate is through.

I need, desperately, to pay the “ferryman” and to put back the funds which were spent from my daughter’s account. Any amount will be greatly appreciated. Please, please, please help. It would be traumatic for my children to have to turn my body over to the state. I am not donating my body to science. I want to be rest on African soil. I want to rest within the earth. I need peace. My children need closure. Sarah needs to go to college. That’s that. They have estimated that it will take two to three weeks for my liver to lose all function. I have opted to not go on any machines to prolong the inevitable. I have a genetic disease. There is no cure. There is no way of extending life without causing additional problems for everyone. Please help in any way you can. Thank you,

La Vonda R. Staples

529 Queen Ann Drive

Hazelwood MO 63042

314-731-1176

lrstaples@gmail.com