Terminally Ill Mom, 38, Spends Final Moments Writing Goodbye Letters to Her Young Children

NEED TO KNOW

• Monica Arnold, 38, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2025, which later spread to her brain and spinal fluid

• Despite a grim prognosis, she is creating keepsakes and letters for her three young children so they will remember her

• A GoFundMe was also created to help her husband cover medical bills, funeral costs, and to support their children after her death

A terminally ill mother is spending her final months preparing for a heartbreaking goodbye to her young children.

In 2025, Monica Arnold — a 38-year-old from Melbourne, Australia — noticed her lymph nodes were swollen. She was dealing with a bout of COVID at the time so she “thought nothing of it,” per the Herald Sun . However, after a month, her lymph nodes were still inflamed and she also found a lump in her breast. She visited a doctor for a mammogram and ultrasound, and was later diagnosed with breast cancer.

Additional testing revealed that she had stage 3 breast cancer after the disease spread to 11 of her lymph nodes. She completed four and a half months of chemotherapy before undergoing a bilateral mastectomy. During the procedure, doctors found “residual cancer” requiring five weeks of daily radiotherapy.

After treatment, Monica thought she was on her road to recovery when she started experiencing severe headaches and bone pain. A CT scan revealed that she had eight “really deep” brain tumors that were inoperable. Additionally, she was diagnosed with leptomeningeal disease (LMD), a rare and severe complication where cancer cells spread to the cerebrospinal fluid and membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

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According to the Cleveland Clinic , cancer patients who develop LMD only live a few weeks without treatment. With treatment, patients can live three to six months after diagnosis.

“Im turning 39 next week, I shouldn't be wondering whether I'm going to make my 40th birthday, and more than that, knowing that my kids are not going to grow up without their mum [is devastating],” she told the outlet. “Hopefully, I can make it to my 40th birthday. Hopefully, I can live longer than that — hopefully, I can exceed what the data says.”

“I know the prognosis isn't good, but I'm trying to survive on this chemo long enough,” she added.

Despite receiving such grim news, Monica said she's now focusing on preparing for her death and creating ways for her husband, Edward, and children — ages 3, 4 and 6 — to remember her.

“I'm writing cards, I'm writing letters. I'm buying jewelry for down the track. I've bought earrings for my daughter's birthday, or for whenever she decides to pierce her ears, there are earrings from mum there,” she said.

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Monica also had her friends and family write letters about how they met and some of the memories they shared together.

“One day, when the kids are older, and they say, ‘Dad, can you tell us about mum?' He can say, ‘Yeah, I can, but actually — here's all the letters that your mum's friends have written.'”

Monica's loved ones have also created a GoFundMe to cover the cost of medical bills and funeral costs so that Edward can remain present for their kids following her death. She called him a “brilliant dad and an amazing husband,” boasting that he's been her “absolute rock through this.”

“The money raised is for my husband, who's going to be a widowed father to three children, one of whom is in school,” she said. “This money is for him to be able to take some time off to grieve after I'm gone. It's for him to be able to not have to worry about how he's going to pay for school fees for the first few years, at least.”

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