Community shows love to Round Rock mom fighting stage 4 ovarian cancer overseas

The Central Texas community rallied for a Round Rock mom and musician Sunday night.

Her name is Yawei, and she’s a regular musician at Indra’s Awarehouse in East Austin.

Round Rock musician Yawei. (provided)

The backstory:

She’s battling a life-threatening case of ovarian cancer thousands of miles away from home, so the venue decided to help launch a fundraiser for her.

Calm music and flowing movements started the night of meditation.

"It's all about really just basking in her healing and knowing like she is so supported," said Rachel Porter, Yawei's friend.

Porter said Yawei had been dealing with stomach pain for a while, but it was misdiagnosed.

What they're saying:

"For her to find out that she actually had ovarian cancer, and by the time she found out, it was stage four," said Porter. "She found out around New Year's, and this was pretty recent."

At such a late stage, her doctor told her that her chances of survival were dropping by the day.

Time wasn't something she could waste.

"Things were just taking really with, you know, paperwork and insurance and just kind of the system we have set up in place that she was trying to go through to get care," said Porter. 

So she took a leap of faith and found a doctor in Turkey, who specializes in late-stage ovarian cancer treatment.

She had just done a 12-hour operation to remove the cancer.

When her friends from back home found out it would cost $35,000, they did what they could and started a fundraiser.

"In a short amount of time, we started to really receive a lot of money coming in, like 5 or 6 grand in the first couple of days, which I think is pretty significant," said Porter. 

Sunday's guided meditation also featured an auction.

"That's what this community is all about," said Jalen. "She's been an important part of what I love about Austin and what keeps me here."

And they'd do just about anything to return that love, even if she's an ocean apart.

"For someone to show up so much for other people, it's really important that we all let her know that we're here for her, just as much as she's here for all of us and just as much as she makes us all feel welcomed and loved and a part of something greater than ourselves, we want to let her know how much she means to us," said Porter. 

What's next:

As of Sunday, Yawei’s friends and family with her in Turkey reported that she was recovering well. Her doctor was able to remove a lot of the cancer in her body despite it spreading past her ovaries. She will still have a long road to recovery.

So far, the Angelink fundraiser has raised more than $14,000.