'My story was not over' — the impact of the Courage Through Cancer Fund

Jaimie Erle and her parents, Chuck and Marianella, had eagerly awaited move-in weekend at the start of San Diego State University’s 2024 fall semester. The Colorado residents had it all planned.

Marianella was already in San Diego having driven a Jeep loaded with most of what Jaimie would need for her first year in college. Also packed were items Marianella intended for use during an extended stay to help thwart potential separation anxiety between a mother and her only child.

Jaimie and her dad were at the airport about to board a San Diego-bound jet to meet Marianella when a call came that would change the family’s plans. A routine mammogram had prompted a biopsy revealing that Marianella had stage II breast cancer. Her doctors wanted to begin treatment immediately. 

The Erles were stunned. Although Marianella had been treated years earlier for a form of leukemia, her breast cancer diagnosis seemed to come out of nowhere.

Instantly, an anticipated day of unpacking and meeting new roommates at SDSU became a tearful hotel-room huddle to discuss next moves. Her husband and daughter wanted Marianella to start cancer treatment right away, but she had other ideas. To Marianella, the thought of returning home felt like abandoning Jaimie in an unfamiliar place. The memory still brings tears.

“I was emotional and could not stop crying,” Marianella said. “Jaimie is my everything. She is my life. I cried and hugged my daughter and I didn’t want to leave her.”

The doctors provided Marianella an encouraging prognosis. The treatment was laid out. “We knew it would be rough,” Chuck recalled, “but we assured her that she was in the best hands with her medical team.”

Jaimie and Chuck were persistent and, ultimately, persuasive. “Jaimie said to me, ‘Mommy, I cannot live without you.’ So that’s what was in my head,” Marianella remembered. “I said, ‘I’m going to do it. I’m going to go and get better, then come back and be with you.’”

Motivating factor

With that decided, other challenges awaited the Erles. Marianella, an entrepreneur running her own cleaning service, would be hammered for almost a year undergoing debilitating tests and treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy that would make working impossible. Education-related costs were already mounting. 

“We were scrambling, obviously, to figure out how we were going to supplement some of the lost income,” said Chuck, who works in financial services. “We had no idea what we were going to do about college.”

The financial equations left Jaimie torn. “I was really doubting my ability to continue my education,” she said.

So she resolved to focus on things she could control, like studying. In high school Jaimie had always aced her honors courses and was a dean’s list fixture. She concentrated on classes for her psychology major and marketing minor. 

“I threw myself almost completely into my academics as a sort of distraction when things would get too heavy or too dark for me. It became a motivating factor to get my mind off of something.”

Championing students

Jaimie also helped her parents research organizations that might provide assistance with tuition or living expenses. That’s where the Erles came across SDSU’s Economic Crisis  Response Team, which referred the family to the university’s Wallace Shatsky Blackburn Courage Through Cancer Fund.

Courage Through Cancer provides support for SDSU students facing challenges from a personal cancer diagnosis or the diagnosis of a loved one. The fund was founded in 2018 by Tammy Blackburn, SDSU senior director of marketing and communications for University Relations and Development, who is currently living with metastatic breast cancer, an incurable disease. .

Since its inception, the fund has supported roughly 50 SDSU students whose education might have been disrupted by a cancer diagnosis. Blackburn said Jaimie Erle was a prime example of a high-achieving student who could continue to thrive at SDSU with some support through a difficult challenge.

“Jaimie is a remarkable student who was handed an unfair situation she never asked for and over which she has no control,” Blackburn said. “Her drive, grades and spirit define her precisely as a student we must champion, and our generous donors make it possible that this cruel misfortune does not derail her future.”

The Courage Through Cancer Fund provided Jaimie with tuition and housing support just when she needed it most. “Right when I was ready to contemplate throwing in the towel was when I received this opportunity,” Jaimie said. “Ever since then it's been a blessing.”

“It felt like an elephant was lifted off of our chests, to be honest — a really big relief,” her father said of the fund’s support. “We could breathe and we knew that we didn't have to worry as much as we were worrying.”

Bringing certainty

Nearing the end of Jaimie’s third semester at SDSU, the Erles are optimistic. Marianella’s treatment and recovery have gone well and she is considering a new work venture.

She is grateful to Courage Through Cancer Fund donors whom she credits for helping to keep her daughter on track for a college degree. “We are very, very grateful, Marianella said. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Jaimie is getting good grades, has many new friends, and is part of a chat group of SDSU students coping with cancer as an unwelcome part of their college experience. She holds open the option of becoming a psychiatrist partly out of a longtime fascination with human motivations, but also from a desire to help others.

At SDSU, however, perhaps the most important things Jaimie has learned were revealed through her mother’s cancer battle. The kind of lessons that don’t come with grades.

“My mom always told me — and it stuck with me when I was facing these challenges —  that everything happens for a reason and that nothing is impossible. I've applied those mottos to my life and that certainty in the uncertain has eased some of my anxieties in the past.”

With her mother recovering and her family’s financial burden eased, Jaimie looks toward the future and its possibilities, acknowledging the critical role the Courage Through Cancer Fund has played in her education.

“It gives me a lot more hope that I am able to accomplish important goals in my life and that my story is not over,” she said. “This generosity has helped me not only be a better person, but also to be inspired to pay it forward and, hopefully, one day give back as I have been given.”

Contribute to the Courage Through Cancer Fund today and your donation will be matched by alumnus Mark Mays, up to $55,000.