Single Mom, 28, with Terminal Cancer Plans Her Own Funeral and Raises Money for Her Kids Before Her Death: ‘I’m So Heartbroken’

A 28-year-old single mother in Oklahoma is preparing for the end of her life while trying to protect her two young children from added hardship.

Kaylin Gawf, the mom of Jace, 9, and Memphis, 6, has created a GoFundMe to help cover funeral and end-of-life expenses while she receives hospice care. She wrote that she has been fighting metastatic breast cancer and that it has spread to her brain.

“This is the hardest thing I have ever faced,” Kaylin wrote. “My biggest fear isn’t dying; it’s leaving my children behind with added pain, stress and financial burden to my family when I’m gone.”

Kaylin said she was first diagnosed three years ago with HER2+ breast cancer that later spread to her lungs, bones, and lymph nodes. By March 2023, she wrote, the cancer had spread to her brain, and she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer and premeningeal disease (LMD).

She also said she has been diagnosed with Cushing’s disease, which has contributed to congestive heart failure, two brain surgeries, and significant weight gain.

“I truly believed I was going to beat cancer here on this earth,” she wrote. “I never imagined I would hear the words, ‘There’s nothing more we can do for you.’ Just a few weeks before Christmas, I was told hospice would be calling my mom and me to set everything up. My world changed forever in that moment. I’m so heartbroken for my children and family.”

“I am so not ready to leave them just yet, but I want to do everything I can to protect them and ease their future, even when I’m no longer here,” she added.

After the fundraiser was launched in hopes of easing the financial pressure on the family, Kaylin’s mother, Myra Gawf, spoke about how the diagnosis has affected them.

“I can’t fix this. I have to let her fight this herself, and I can’t take it away from her,” Myra told Fox 8 Live. “It’s hard every day to have to sit and watch her go through that.”

“There’s just nothing they could do for her; it spread that much,” she continued. “They’ve already done five different cycles of chemotherapy, and there’s no more because her body can’t handle it. We thought we’d beat it. Now, we’re planning a funeral. So, it’s just heartbreaking.”

Myra also praised her daughter’s determination to think about her children’s future, even as she faces her illness.

“She still wants to be able to look out for them and try to plan for their future, and I thought it was nice that she actually did that,” she said. “If she doesn’t complain for what she’s going through, what do we have to complain [about]? She inspires us all to do that, especially me. She’s my little hero is what she is.”