What can we do to support the ones we love in the face of insurmountable afflictions?
In the case of Bradford’s Daniel Salinas, he started an online fundraiser on Feb. 23 in the hopes of granting his life-long friend Esteban Martinez’s dying wish of being able to spend time with his mother, Carolina Oliveros, as Martinez is currently in palliative care at home in Ottawa.
They explained Martinez has been fighting terminal brain cancer with “resilience, humour, and strength beyond words,” since being diagnosed on Aug. 17, 2022, but following a sudden dizzy spell and hospitalization in mid February, doctors determined the chemotherapy was no longer working and estimated Martinez likely only has two to six months to live.
Salinas explained that as a single mother, Oliveros is working “like crazy” to fill all of her “very demanding” 12- to 16-hour shifts at the hospital, take care of the household and still find time to spend with her son and 17-year-old daughter, all of which leaves her as little as two hours to sleep each night.
“I felt guilty before because I had to stay working,” Oliveros said. “I''m here taking care of patients because I work in a hospital, and my son is home alone. It’s not fair.”
Before being diagnosed, Oliveros said her son played piano, performed gymnastics and had just graduated high school with plans to become a chef.
“We were terrified,” she said of hearing the diagnosis, adding doctors explained they couldn’t operate due to the location of the tumour in the brain.
Martinez wanted to fight, though. He elected to undergo radiation and chemotherapy, and at first, Oliveros said it seemed to be working, as the tumour was shrinking for roughly the first year.
In order to make the most of her time with her son while he was still mostly healthy, Oliveros said she used her savings and took an unpaid six-month leave from work — including a 2.5-week trip to Florida with Salinas and his family where they visited the Walt Disney World Resort.
However, she said Martinez eventually began experiencing seizures that later made it difficult for him to move the right half of his body. Still, he wanted to push forward with rehabilitation.
“He was always fighting (the cancer). He has always loved life,” Oliveros said.
Initially, Salinas said Martinez was mostly still mobile and able to care for himself, but since the recent downturn he now needs 24/7 support, and struggles to communicate as he can no longer see or speak much.
Despite that, Salinas said they still have a way of understanding each other.
“He’s still my best friend,” he said. “We laugh, we joke. ... I know he’s still in there fighting. It’s just not the same.”
Salinas has been working remotely from Ottawa to help feed, shower and take his friend to the washroom while Oliveros is at work.
“It’s a huge shock, a huge change, but I'm always going to be there for him,” Salinas said. “We’ve been together basically since birth.”
Oliveros explained she and Salinas’s mother met and became friends about 35 years ago in Colombia and remained close after leaving the country, so even though Salinas has always lived in Bradford and Martinez has always lived in Ottawa, they saw each other regularly.
“My family and his would always make efforts to meet. We are basically family,” Salinas said.
When they became old enough, the friends took turns visiting each other, until Martinez’s diagnosis, after which Salinas said he made the trip to Ottawa at least once a month.
Following Martinez’s recent turn for the worse, Salinas said he and Oliveros did the math and determined that in order for her to be able to afford all the equipment and medication to make her son comfortable in addition to paying all the regular bills while also taking unpaid time off work, she would need roughly $70,000 to make ends meet.
As of publication of this article, 415 donors have already given more than $38,000 toward that goal.
“It’s incredible,” Salinas said of the generosity so far.
Oliveros said she’s grateful and didn’t expect the fundraiser to be so successful.
“I'm speechless,” she said.
It’s not just the fundraiser either, as she said her local community and friends in Ottawa have come together to bring her groceries, help clean the home or provide other support.
For more information or to support the fundraiser, visit the GoFundMe website.