Utah mother dies after raising $1m on GoFundMe for her children’s future

A mother in Utah who was battling terminal cancer has died.

Erika Diarte-Carr, 30, revealed last month that she was raising money on GoFundMe for her own funeral expenses as well as for her children’s future. Her cousin announced that Carr passed away on Saturday (October 12).

“It is with a heavy heart that this is the final update I will be giving for my cousin Erika. She has joined her mother Sylvia, her Brother JJ, her uncles Chava & Loui on the other side,” her post on Facebook began.

“She fought a long and hard battle. She was strong and held on as long as she could for her babies. I know she was so thankful for all of your support and love and prayers.”

Carr was a single mother to two children, Jeremiah, seven, and Aaliyah, five. She called them her “whole life, light and soul … and what keeps [her] going.”

Her original GoFundMe description explained she’d been struggling with Stage 4 small-cell lung carcinoma for the past two years, and doctors gave her a terminal diagnosis. After a September 18 oncologist appointment, she no longer planned on pursuing treatments as she was told that they would “no longer help.” The doctors told her she had at most three months left.

“3 months to spend with my babies and loved ones. 3 months to make the best of what time I have left,” she wrote at the time. “During these next couple of months, I need to make sure my kids will be ok after I am gone. I am faced now with the most difficult thing of planning my own funeral.”

The mother’s goal was to reach $5,000 but the number as of Monday is over $1m.

“It happened overnight. I never expected that,” she told ABC News after seeing the number reach $900,000. “I never expected to have a big funeral service or a lot of people reach out and help me.”

She added, “With the way it’s went, I’m just in shock … just very grateful for everybody and everything that’s been there.”

Carr also thanked her “amazing medical team” for their continued support.

The single mother mentioned on her GoFundMe page that she received her diagnosis during a visit to the emergency room with a shoulder injury in May 2022. She wrote that the doctor 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.”

“The doctor then proceeded to tell me that there were multiple tumors that had metastasized to other parts of my body including my skeletal, which is how we were able to find the tumor that was causing my shoulder pain,” Erika continued.

“By that pointm the damage had already been done. In that moment, mine and my kids’ entire lives had changed forever, as well as all of those around us.”

In January 2024, she was diagnosed with Cushing’s syndrome – a disorder that leads the body to make “too much of the hormone cortisol over a long period of time,” according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

“Since my diagnosis I have managed to keep working full time, taking only 2 months off in the beginning for surgeries, biopsies, appointments, radiation and chemotherapy treatments,” she added on her GoFundMe page.

“All while still being a full-time mama. I do have an AMAZING support system but over time it has put a major financial, emotional, mental, and physical toll on us all.”