Our sister, mother, daughter Marissa “Mari”Guerrero was diagnosed August 23,2023 with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. Her cancer had metastasized to her liver and lungs. Mari was experiencing excruciating pain in her side August 14, 2023 on her drive home from work. She went to the ER only to leave with not only a breast cancer diagnosis but a metastatic form. She was immediately assigned to an Oncologist with Texas Oncology to start immediate treatments. She was told she would have to have chemotherapy every Tuesday for 3 weeks straight, off one week for recovery, and so on and so forth for 6 months straight. Thankfully her worst days at the beginning had only included nausea and extreme fatigue, but as the treatments continued the side effects progressively got worse. Her hair was thinning and we came to the point where she would have to be brave enough to shave her hair. It was easy to say, “it will grow back. It’s only hair”, but as a woman, most of us pride ourselves on our appearance.  During her journey, Mari switched treatment centers, participated in many trials to try and find that one miracle drug/treament to give her more time here on earth.Mari was a mother of 2 grown daughters and had recently become a grandma to 2 beautiful grand daughters . As one would expect Mari had a fear of not being able to see her granddaughters grow up. Mari had a great support system who continued to encourage her to remain positive because we are all people of faith and we all truly believed she would beat this awful disease and live a longer life than she believed she would. Mari NEVER gave up. She sat at her last oncologist appointment on July 8, 2025 and was told she could no longer receive chemo therapy as she was presenting physical and mental signs of decline. She looked the Dr straight in the face and stated.. “I disagree with you,” indicating she could still fight. Broke our hearts because she still had fight left but those of us around her knew it would do more harm than good. Mari was a fighter, but we all fought for her when she couldn’t all the way up to her very last day on Earth July 13, 2025.

Breast cancer awareness is extremely important. Early detection, proper screenings, and research needs to continue to hopefully find a cure for this deadly disease. Mari was a recipient of many grants and programs during her journey and we were so grateful . Programs and funding are desperately needed to help treat those that need it. This can’t be accomplished without everyone’s generous donations The hope is that more families aren’t broken like our family was.