After two years battling cancer and more than $450,000 spent on treatment, an Adelaide family is making one final appeal to help bring their mum home.
Adelaide brothers Dylan and Jake Pinksterboer have launched an urgent fundraiser to cover the remaining cost of life-saving surgery for their mother, Silvia Signore, who is currently in Heidelberg, Germany for treatment.
The family needs to raise €85,000 (around AU$140,000) before the hospital will schedule the operation, which Silvia’s medical team believes offers her best chance of becoming cancer-free.
Silvia was first diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer in May 2024. Despite surgery, chemotherapy and multiple procedures, the cancer later progressed to stage four after spreading to her pelvis and reproductive organs.
Over the past year, Silvia travelled to Germany to undergo specialist treatment not available in Australia. Since then, she has undergone eight surgeries to reduce the tumour burden and intensive targeted chemotherapy, with the goal of becoming eligible for the final operation.
According to the family’s fundraiser, the surgery is intended to remove the remaining cancer, reverse Silvia’s stoma and begin her recovery, with doctors describing the procedure as having curative intent.
The family says they have already exhausted every avenue to reach this point, selling businesses and cars, using Silvia’s life insurance and disability payments, draining savings and contributing more than $450,000 towards treatment and living expenses overseas.
Recent complications have made the situation even more urgent.
Following pre-operative testing, Silvia developed severe inflammation and has now spent six weeks without chemotherapy while doctors wait to perform the surgery. The family says the hospital has advised treatment cannot continue because it would reduce her ability to undergo the major operation safely.
At the same time, financing options, payment plans, insurance pathways and government assistance have all fallen through, while delays with an immigration process have prevented Silvia from accessing statutory health insurance in Germany before the surgical window closes.
With no remaining options, the family has turned to the community for support.
Friends say asking for help was a last resort after months of trying to manage the financial burden privately, but time has now run out.
Dylan shared, “We are a family. We have tried to carry this ourselves for as long as we could. But we cannot do it anymore.
“Without this surgery, we lose her. With surgery, she lives a long life and this is over.
“She desperately wants to live, after 9’months of being away from everyone in hopes of getting home in one piece , so she can be with her granddaughter and her children.”
The fundraiser says the surgical team is ready to proceed as soon as funding is secured, with Silvia hoping the operation will finally allow her to return home to Adelaide and be reunited with her children, granddaughter and loved ones.
At the time of publishing, the fundraiser has achieved $100,000 of its $180,000 goal (which included the surgery costs, and post operation care for Silvia).
Those wishing to support the family can donate through the GoFundMe campaign or help by sharing Silvia’s story with others.
