Erika Diarte-Carr, a 33-year-old mum of two is now planning her own funeral after her pain turned out to be terminal.
It was only three years ago that Erika walked into the emergency department, where she complained of painful discomfort in her shoulder.
Erika said: “I have been ashamed and embarrassed for people to know the truth, that I have kept this a secret for as long as I could but the physical effects are starting to take control and I can’t hide it any longer.
Erika Diarte-Carr was told she has months to live (Erika Diarte-Carr/GoFundMe)
Unfortunately, it was found that she has a highly aggressive form of small cell lung carcinoma along with multiple tumours throughout her body.
Erika has a five-year-old daughter called Ailiyah and a seven-year-old son named Jeremiah, who she has been trying to be strong for during her three years of cancer treatment.
But little over a week ago, she was told she had just three months left to live.
It was on May 7, 2022 that she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, small cell lung carcinoma, which is the day before US Mother’s Day.
When her condition improved, she was able to stop treatment to see how she got on, only to develop Cushing’s Syndrome, on January 17, 2024, which is a rare hormonal disorder that happens when the body is exposed to too much cortisol.
This new diagnosis caused her to rapidly gain weight and caused her body to swell and her muscles and bones to deteriorate.
She was due to restart her treatment, on September 18, 2024, but has decided to forgo treatment so she can spend her remaining time with her children.
It was that same day she was told about how long she has left.
She wrote on her GoFundMe page: “Unfortunately, I wasn’t given the best news. Due to my prognosis, I have decided to discontinue treatments as they will no longer help. I have been given three months to live.
“Three months to spend with my babies and loved ones. Three months to make the best of what time I have left.
“I have looked into the expenses and I need to raise about $5,000 to ensure funeral costs are covered plus I want to leave something behind for my babies.”
The author recently revealed that in 2018 she and Noddy, 77, were told he was suffering from oesophageal cancer and initially had just six months to live.
The ‘bombshell’ revelation made by Suzan comes just months after her husband returned to the stage and completed a run of strenuous live shows.
Getting candid in her latest article, the columnist reflected on seeing her ‘incredible’ partner performing live again after being receiving a diagnosis five years ago.
She continued: “To watch him do what he does so brilliantly was thrilling, entertaining and profoundly moving. You see, five years ago we were given the devastating news that he had oesophageal cancer and only had six months to live.”
Suzan went on to say that the pair coped with the illness by ‘hunkering down and sticking together’.
“We told only immediate close family and friends and I will never apologise to those we did not confide in, only to those who were forced to suffer pain and anguish alongside us as we attempted to navigate our way through this new and horrifying world.”
Elsewhere, she revealed that after being her husband had been diagnosed with cancer, the ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ star turned to The Christie Hospital in Manchester.
Christopher Furlong/Paul Draper
There, he agreed to undergo a ‘gruelling course of experimental treatment’ which was allegedly part of a ‘brand-new trial of intense chemotherapy’.
“There were no guarantees, no one knew if it would have any effect, let alone work miracles, but he responded well,” she explained.
Despite initially being handed such a short time to live, Noddy was fit enough this summer to embark on a tour with Cheshire musician, Tom Seals, and his band.
During sold-out gigs in Dorset, Walsall and Salford, Noddy reportedly opened up about his cancer journey for the first time and was forced to ‘hold back tears’ while he talked.
Concluding her tell-all piece, Suzan went on to thank the staff at The Christie for looking after her husband.
“The care and expertise we experienced at The Christie was excellent. In addition, Noddy has always been great at living in the moment, not hankering for the past or worrying about the future.
“You need so much mental strength to get through something like this. I’ve always been impressed by my husband’s focus and determination but now I am completely in awe.”
Noddy is due to be a special guest of Seals when he and his band play their Christmas Spectacular at Crewe Lyceum Theatre on December 1, 2023.
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So, you’ve partied a little harder than you expected at a big event and you’re a bit rundown afterwards. Normal, right?
That’s initially what 32-year-old Ricky Duggal believed after experiencing exhaustion symptoms a week on from his cousin’s wedding.
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In July 2023, the medical expert complained about back pain and fatigue, causing him to book a life-changing doctor’s appointment.
“I had had back pain before – dentists often get it because of our bad posture whilst working with patients,” Dugga told LeedsLive. “I went to the physio who loosened it all up but it didn’t seem to make much difference.
“I was also waking up with night sweats and I had a purple bruise on my leg.”
Duggal explained his worry intensified when he realised he couldn’t bench what he was used to at the gym.
After noticeably losing strength, pounding headaches began to manifest at the back of his head.
“This was the symptom that worried me the most,” he admitted.
Deciding to take his health into his own hands, Duggal booked in to see his GP within 10 days of exhibiting the strange symptoms.
It’s understood the Leeds native was immediately referred to a local hospital due to worries he was suffering from a bleed on the brain.
Duggal complained that he felt his doctor was ‘overreacting a bit’, causing him to dumb-down his symptoms.
When he got to A&E, he was tested for viral meningitis and had a computed tomography (CT) scan.
“I’m quite a relaxed person and still thought everything would come back fine,” he confessed to the publication.
After completing all the assigned tests, Duggal received results that showed he had a raised white blood cell count – with the doctor’s delivery of the news raising ‘alarm bells’.
Due to the worrying outcome, he was asked to stay overnight in the hospital and gave 12 vials worth of blood to be sampled.
After spending the night in the institution with his wife, Simi, doctors announced he would have to undergo a bone marrow biopsy to ‘rule out anything sinister’.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, a bone marrow biopsy’s purpose is to show whether the cells present are abnormal.
It’s also a way for your healthcare provider to diagnose blood disorders or more serious diseases such as cancer.
Later, Duggal was informed that he had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
The NHS has chalked ALL up as a rare type of cancer that specifically affects a person’s blood and their bone marrow, too.
While symptoms aren’t always obvious at first, they do resemble those that Duggal exhibited after his family wedding: tiredness, headaches, and pain in the bones or joints.
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The dentist was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (Instagram/rickydentist)
More common symptoms of ALL include looking more pale than usual, exhibiting a high temperature, and suffering from swollen glands.
Duggal spent five weeks solid in hospital and chemotherapy within the hour after being diagnosed with ALL diagnosis on 11 August 2023.
Recounting the ordeal, the married man claimed his illness had been a ‘huge shock’ and that he credits his wife and family for seeing him through the tough time.
After being given the green light to leave hospital, he returned home where he allegedly suffered from short breathless and accepting ‘life was not as it was before’.
Soon after the dentist’s completed his first cycle of chemotherapy, doctors announced he was in remission.
Despite tests coming back clear, he has since undergone a second cycle in November, and a third a month later.
After three rounds of ALL treatment, Duggal says his life has changed dramatically.
“I’ve learnt to slow down and create a new routine, going for walks and reading books,” he said.
He added that his 2025 New Year’s Resolution would be to begin maintenance chemo in the summer, which is expected to last around two years.
You can continue to follow Ricky Duggal’s health journey on Instagram, here.
But you probably wouldn’t choose a stinky tin of fish, right?
Well, prepare yourself for the thought of that, as a woman explained the ‘shocking’ things eating just sardines for three months did to her body. Yep, sardines and nothing else.
Jane Crummett was struggling with her health due to extreme foot pain, inflammation and food addiction when she decided to make a dramatic lifestyle change.
![Crummett reckons it's worked wonders. (Youtube/Dr. Boz [Annette Bosworth, MD])](https://images.ladbible.com/resize?type=webp&quality=70&width=3840&fit=contain&gravity=auto&url=https://images.ladbiblegroup.com/v3/assets/bltcd74acc1d0a99f3a/blt24dcec92351cf825/66f6725287363536a5960fcc/Screenshot_2024-09-27_at_09.17.35.png)
Crummett reckons it’s worked wonders. (Youtube/Dr. Boz [Annette Bosworth, MD])
So, in 2020, Crummett adopted a carnivore diet and lost 65 pounds, but she ended up hitting a plateau and her weight crept back on. It was time to try something else.
In May, she hit a weight of 14 stone and decided to try out Flordia physician Annette Bosworth’s 72-hour sardine fast. The method from ‘Dr Boz’ is supposed to jump-start metabolism and send a person’s body into advanced ketosis to rapidly burn fat for energy.
But the woman didn’t leave it at three days, and has stuck to the fish.
“People think I’m absolutely nuts,” she told Bosworth on her YouTube show last month.
Crummett explained she eats four cans of sardines every day and supplement with MCT oil.
Consuming around 1,500 daily calories (the NHS advises the average man needs 2,500kcal and the average woman 2,000kcal), she said she’s ‘not starving herself’. The woman claimed that her oily fish only diet had restored her energy, reduced her blood sugar and relieved her pain.
Crummett also said she lost 12 pounds of fluid in the first two weeks of this regime.
A UK doc from healthcare company Jude pointed out that mercury can accumulate in the body despite sardines being low in it in small amounts as well as pointing out other potential downsides.
“Firstly, [sardines] contain zero fiber. Fiber is crucial for gut health and digestion. A diet based solely on sardines could lead to constipation,” Dr. Masarat Jilani told Surrey Live. “The way sardines are canned means they are usually preserved in either salt or oil.
“If they are salted sardines, you will be consuming an excessive amount of sodium, which can raise your blood pressure and put strain on your kidneys.”
The NHS stresses the importance of a healthy, balanced diet to help maintain good health including at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. It’s important to speak to a doctor or registered dietitian if you’ve got concerns about your diet.
British mum became the first woman to be dissected live on TV
In August 2020, Kent native Toni Crews sadly died at the age of 30 after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
But before her death, Toni admitted she had been ‘fascinated’ by what her body was doing.
“She came out of the kitchen with a pile of forms,” Toni’s mother Jo explained to The Guardian ahead of the show’s premiere.
“[She] told us that was her plan. She’d printed them all out, signed them and asked us to be her witness. To her, it was simple.”
“It was a typical Toni thing to do,” added her father, Jason. “Tick all the boxes on the form; do whatever she can; say yes to everything.
My Dead Body premiered in 2022. (Channel 4)
He added that the trio ‘didn’t realise’ at the time how ‘groundbreaking’ what she wanted to do was.
Following Toni’s death, Professor Claire Smith, Head of Anatomy at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), picked up her file and took a look over her medical history.
After gaining their permission to use their daughter’s body in scientific tutorials, the idea of the documentary emerged.
Therefore, instead of a funeral taking place for the beloved mother, Toni’s body was taken to BSMS for further study.
In My Dead Body, Smith leads a series of workshops for students and examines a different part of Toni’s body in each of the tutorials.
Toni Crews sadly died in 2020. (Instagram/@blingkofaneye_)
The documentary also features archive recordings of Toni – who first contracted cancer in 2016 – speaking about her life and illness.
AI technology was also utilised to replicate the woman’s voice so that she could narrate various words written in her diary and via text message.
Speaking about her part in the ground-breaking doc, Smith explained: “We have been so privileged to explore the journey of cancer through the incredible donation made by Toni.
“As part of this documentary, we were able to invite more than 1,000 students, including nurses, paramedics and neuroscientists, who wouldn’t normally get to learn about this one-in-a-million cancer.
“Toni’s gift of body donation doesn’t end with this documentary either. Her body will be used to educate our medical students and doctors for years to come.”
