Utah mother raises more than $750,000 for her own funeral after terminal cancer diagnosis

A Utah mother who fought for her life after being diagnosed with a rare terminal cancer now has three months to live, and she has decided to spend that time with her children.

People from all over the country have rallied around her and donated more than $750,000 to her GoFundMe, which originally had a goal of just $5,000.

Erika Carr, 30, is a single mother of two children: Jeremiah, 7, and Aaliyah, 5.

She calls them her “whole life, light and soul… and what keeps her going.”

On May 7, 2022, Carr was diagnosed with stage 4 small cell lung carcinoma, a “high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma,” she stated on her GoFundMe. Her diagnosis came the day before Mother’s Day and she has been fighting for her life for more than two years.

The doctors told her, “I hope you have a good support system at home because you’re going to need it, you have a long and hard journey ahead of you.”

Her condition had improved: positive scans gave her the chance to stop treatment and see how she improved. During this time, on January 17, 2024, she developed Cushing’s syndrome – a rare hormonal disorder that occurs when the body is exposed to too much cortisol for an extended period of time.

It has had a host of difficult effects on her body, including rapid weight gain and swelling, muscle and bone deterioration, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

Although she resumed treatment, doctors told her on September 18, 2024 that she had three months to live. She chose to stop treatment and spend that time nurturing her two children.

Carr has been given the seemingly impossible task of planning her own funeral, and she decided to set up a GoFundMe to help cover the costs. She set a modest goal and asked for just $5,000, hoping she might be able to leave some extra money for her children.

Since then, she has received more than $750,000.

More than 26,000 donations have been given to her cause. She has now set up a trust fund and is grateful that her children will be fine when they grow up.

“It happened overnight. I never expected that,” she told KTLA sister station KTVX. “I never expected there to be a big funeral service, or a lot of people to help me. The way it’s turned out, I’m just in shock…just really grateful for everyone and everything that’s been there.”

Carr’s GoFundMe can be found here.

Renisha Mall contributed to this report.