Utah mother dies after raising $1 million on GoFundMe for her children's future

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A Utah mother battling terminal cancer has died.

Erika Diarte-Carr, 30, announced last month that she was raising money on GoFundMe for her own funeral costs as well as 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 last update I will give to my cousin Erika. She joined her mother Sylvia, her brother JJ and her uncles Chava and 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 grateful for all of your support, love and prayers.”

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

Her original GoFundMe description said she had been battling stage 4 small cell lung cancer for two years and doctors gave her a terminal diagnosis. After an appointment with an oncologist on September 18, she stopped planning any further treatments because she was told they would “no longer help.” Doctors told her she had at most three months left.

“3 months to spend with my babies and loved ones. “Three months to make the most of the time I have left,” she wrote at the time. “Over the next few months I need to make sure my kids are okay while I’m away. I now face the most difficult task of planning my own funeral.”

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

“It happened overnight. I never expected that,” she said ABC News after I saw the number reach $900,000. “I never thought there would be a big memorial service or that many people would come forward and help me.”

She added: “The way it went, I'm just in shock… just very grateful for everyone and everything that was there.”

Carr also thanked her “great 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 for 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 because you have a long and hard journey ahead of you.”

“The doctor then told me that there were several tumors that had metastasized to other parts of my body, including my skeleton, and so we were able to find the tumor that was causing my shoulder pain,” Erika continued.

“By this point the damage had already been done. In that moment, my life and the lives of my children and everyone around us were changed forever.”

In January 2024, she was diagnosed with Cushing's syndrome — a condition that causes the body to “produce 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 continue working full-time, initially only taking two months off for surgeries, biopsies, appointments, radiation and chemotherapy treatments,” she added on her GoFundMe page.

“All while still being a full-time mom. While I have an AMAZING support system, over time it has taken a huge financial, emotional, mental and physical toll on all of us.”