Support my Mom as She Begins Her Treatment for Stage 3 Tongue Cancer

My mom Khurshid has been diagnosed with Stage 3 tongue cancer. As I write this, she’s preparing for a partial glossectomy, neck dissection to remove many of the lymph nodes in her neck, removal of some muscle on the side of one jaw and subsequent radiation treatment (& potential chemotherapy) in the coming months. The journey is going to be a difficult one.

As her son, I’ll be prioritizing her care & will be there for her for every step of treatment (& care for her during her recovery time at home) This will take a few months & I’ll have to take a little time away from work to make sure her journey is a healing one that hopefully leads to her being cancer-free and able to resume all her activities by the fall.

Things are complicated in that my brother Salim has Stage 4 Liver Cirrhosis & will need a liver transplant to survive. We’ve been searching for almost three years for a living liver donor for him and the longer the delay, his odds for survival go down. We’ve been doing our best to take care of his rent, food & medication, but now we’re also facing a long journey for my mom now, not just medically but financially.

We’re raising money for her care, hoping that by taking care of my mom’s costs when it comes to treatment & subsequent therapy, we have more time to work to support my brother as well in finding a living liver donor to save his life.

As mentioned I’ll be the primary caregiver for my mom, so every cent that helps her allows me to work more for both of them.

So you’re not just helping her, but our entire family as well.

Click on the link below to donate & let’s hope that with your support & the care she receives, her treatment will be successful, in part, because of your help.

With love,

rahim

Updates

June 29th 2026

We had our first consultation with Dr. Witterick at Mount Sinai hospital last week, where we went over the details of what would be ahead. We’re still waiting to see when surgery will be, but we were treated very well by the entire staff at the Department of Otolaryngology for Head & Neck Surgery. One of the things that was emphasized is that there will be testing done after the surgery on the tumor & lymph nodes that are removed, to see if treatment beyond surgery and radiation will be needed.

As mentioned, we will know soon what date my mom’s surgery will be. She’s in good spirits & we have faith that we’re in good hands and are looking forward to starting treatment.