A student has told Israeli media that she will not give up the fight to secure a potentially life-saving experimental cancer treatment for her mother, despite the huge costs involved.Angelica Riben, 27, was a psychology student before her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She had to give up everything in order to take on the financial fight of funding her mother's extremely expensive cancer treatments, while still supporting them and her 13-year-old sister.
Natalie Riben's lung cancer diagnosis was a blow. As a single mother, she had been hoping to save up to buy a home for herself and her two daughters before the diagnosis, to give them more stability. When standard chemotherapy didn't work, the small family was dealt another blow: There was an alternative treatment – Keytruda – but it is not included in the health basket. Consequently, accessing the treatment would cost Natalie NIS 25,000 every two weeks; last year the total cost was NIS 650,000. With Natalie unwell, suffering the side effects of cancer treatment, responsibility for raising the money and keeping the family functioning fell to Angelica.
"Everything changed for us since the diagnosis: The ground fell beneath my feet. When the bomb fell, my life was divided between before the diagnosis and now," Angelica told Ynet in an interview.
"Standard chemotherapy isn't helping. The oncologist recommended this medicine to us, and of course I'll try to keep obtaining it. I won't give up, because this is the only thing that could save her life," she added. "My mother's situation is deteriorating, her condition is critical and she's experiencing side effects of the treatment that aren't supposed to occur."
The Ribens turned to the board of exceptional situations of her family's health insurance, but they refused to pay for the treatment – so she was left to find a way to fund the treatment by herself.
"The first payment was funded by donations from close friends and the very little family we have here in the country," Angelica told Channel 12.
"I'm not sure how I'm supposed pay for the next payments. There's a fund online that they opened for me, but it's only the beginning."We're at the beginning of the fight, and the path is long. I don't know how I'm supposed to survive this, because at the same time, in addition to the medicine, we still have other expenses: bills, food," she added.
A public donation fund has been opened to help pay for the treatment, called Latet Zeh Likabel (To give is to receive), on the website GiveBack.
"People are donating. There are some that come in person to our house, and there are those that donate directly to the link on my Facebook page," she told Channel 12.
"I sincerely appreciate any donation, big or small. Sometimes they're small, and people don't feel comfortable giving an amount like that, but I tell them that the amount accumulates, and in the end it helps us arrive to the required amount," she added.
"It's still early to say if my mother is responding to the treatment, but I know that you have to treat people who are sick; no matter the cost, I'll do everything I can for my mother."
Angelica is struggling to keep food on the table for herself and her sister, pay for their living expenses and come up with the money for her mother's medical treatment. "I'm fighting to try and get this medicine for my mother, and I'm dealing with a lot of bureaucracy alone, because we don't have a lot of family in the country. I don't know how much I can go on like this, but I don't intend on quitting," she told Ynet.
"I ask people this question who aren't willing to help me: How am I supposed to come up with amounts of money like this every single time?" Angelica asked.
The link to the donation page can be found .