A terminally ill mother who has endured 12 harrowing months of cancer treatment including highly invasive surgery, radiation and chemotherapy is now burdened with the fact that her family will have to pay her crippling medical bills. Much loved matriarch Malinda Binns [formerly O’Connor] was told by doctors last month that there was nothing more they could do for her and she was moved to the end-of-life care facility Agape House.

In the space of just one year Ms Binns was diagnosed with melanoma of the sinuses, cancer in the kidney and brain cancer. She underwent skin grafts, multiple surgeries including the removal of her right eye, as well as debilitating radiation and chemotherapy.

Now her 77-year-old mother Betty O’Connor and three daughters, Arlena, Avita and Tyneisha O’Connor, are facing medical bills expected to be in the region of $120,000.

Betty told The Royal Gazette: “I can only afford to pay $100 a month, I’m retired. I only just paid off all of my debts. Now I have a $100,000 bill. Someone advised me to go to PALS and they were able to help with hotels and flights. I was told I ‘wouldn’t have to pay a dime’ towards them and I cried I was so happy.

“There is just her daughters and me and they have other bills to pay. I would have to remortgage my house to pay this off.” While cancer charity PALS was able to help finance travel and accommodation for the family, HIP covered 60 per cent of the overseas medical costs and Ms Binns was eventually able to secure financial assistance. But the remaining outstanding costs are still around $120,000.

Betty said the family had held a pot-luck supper and plans on organising another fundraising ‘lunch and bake’ sale but it will only go so far to help them. She is hoping that the community will pull together and donate money to Malinda’s cause through the Lady Cubitt Compassionate Association.

This time last year Malinda was going about her everyday life until doctors found polyps — small, typically benign growths — in her cheek. In November 2015, she was diagnosed with melanoma of the sinuses, which is a particularly aggressive form of cancer and she was flown to Boston’s Lahey Clinic for surgery. Her first medical trip lasted about five months, with the devastating loss of an eye during the process.

She returned to the island in March when further problems arose. She began vomiting and lost control of her bladder. She returned to Lahey in July to undergo reconstructive surgery on her face, but when she got there they found cancer on her kidney. She returned to Bermuda to arrange more radiation for her kidney but the news went from bad to worse — the cancer had spread to her brain including a tumour the size of a golf ball.

In August she was back on the plane and back in the operating theatre at Lahey to have the largest of three tumours removed. While she survived the surgery, the smallest of the tumours in her brain continued to grow and soon after she began bleeding in the brain. It was at this point that doctors said there was nothing more they could do for her and that her family should make her as comfortable as possible. She was admitted to Agape House where she remains today. According to her family, Malinda has a strong faith and an indestructible positive attitude towards life. Earlier this month she decided to fulfil her dream and married her partner of 11 years, Jamel Binns, at an emotional ceremony organised by family, friends, Agape House and Friends of Hospice staff.

Malinda’s daughter, Arlena, said: “It has been really stressful. Despite everything she has been through she is still staying positive, she laughs. Even though the doctors said there was nothing they could do for her now she said ‘I’ll walk out of here!’ She doesn’t feel like she is any less of a person because of this. It would be a great help if the community could help. It has been hard for us. It’s not like we had a lot of time to prepare for it, it was so sudden. We don’t have a lot of help.”

Arlena’s twin sister, Avita, added: “It is a burden because my mom wasn’t able to work and then we had to get financial assistance to get her last surgery done. It has been a burden with the economy and her not being able to work. We all pay rent and don’t have great-paying jobs, so to take care of my mom has been difficult. Her treatment is very expensive and even her diet has to be different — that is expensive as well.

“I am the type of person that rolls with the punches and deals with what is in front of me. I work best with what I have but I have never been in this position before.”

Her daughters asked their mother whether there was anything she wanted to say to the community and, while she is getting weaker and weaker, she was able to say: “I want to thank everyone for their help, love and support.”

Anyone wishing to donate to the family can do so through the Lady Cubitt Compassionate Association by depositing funds to Malinda Binns [or O’Connor], on Betty O’Connor’s account at LCCA’s account: HSBC #010-287209-002. You must include Malinda’s name or the organisation will not know where to allocate the funds.

• This article was amended to show that the correct LCCA account number is #010-287209-002.