SAN ANTONIO — It’s the phone call Toi Cudworth didn’t see coming, especially on her birthday last November.
“The cancer word, it’s just a scary word in general. I was stunned. That’s not what you expect to hear. I had to ask her again: 'I’m sorry, what is it?'” Cudworth said.
The doctor’s diagnosis revealed Cudworth had breast cancer.
The San Antonio woman spent the following months taking time off from work to undergo a series of checkups and cancer treatments while facing mountain medical bills.
“It’s that rainy fund that you’re using constantly and hopefully my numbers and my checkups, everything will continue to be good. I have medication I have to take for the next five years. You go in for that checkup and I just hope I hear that, OK, no evidence of disease, everything is still working,” Cudworth said.
Strangers, friends and family have shown their support for Cudworth, raising well over $19,000 through a GoFundMe to help pay for her medical expenses.
It’s this kind of generosity that’s been reflected in Cudworth’s own actions during the early days of the pandemic.
She ended up donating much of her first stimulus check to the San Antonio Food Bank after witnessing the struggle faced by thousands of Texans experiencing hunger.
“The food shelves were bare, the food bank, they got over 10,000 cars in the parking lot. People shouldn’t be hungry, not in this country, they shouldn’t be hungry and it’s something I felt like I needed to do,” Cudworth said.
Cudworth is forever grateful; from one selfless gesture to another.
“I’m completely overwhelmed. The kindness that you’re showing me is just remarkable and I appreciate it so much. And we’re there to take care of each other so I didn’t expect my good deed to turn my good deed into what it is,” Cudworth said.
Click here to learn more about Cudworth’s GoFundMe fundraiser.