Mom to Mom: South Florida woman exceeds goal for South America trek to support pediatric cancer patients

This week on Mom to Mom, Local 10′s Nicole Perez gets an update from a South Florida woman who completed a five-day trek in South America in honor of children who are fighting cancer.

It was the trip of a lifetime for Sandra Muvdi. She traveled to the Southernmost part of the Chilean Patagonia, on a trek to reach the end of the world during Christmas.

“I had never gone hiking, on strenuous hikes, with a heavy backpack on my back and this was for five days without a resting day in between,” said Muvdi.

She hiked through the popular W-Trek in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. The journey is 50 miles long with up to nine-hour hiking days, 9,000-foot climbs and crossing a river and ice hiking on Grey Glacier. She even spotted wildlife along the way.

“After 9 hours, the first day trekking to reach the base of the towers, which was absolutely spectacular, breathtaking, worth it 100% to see,” said Muvdi.

But it was not without its challenges.

“The next day it was hiking six hours in the rain without stopping. After that my knees were hurting. One of my knees I hit it hard so i had a big black and blue, left knee hurting, and also, I had a sore throat. So, I was starting to ask my guide, what if I can’t do it?” said Muvdi.

Nicole first introduced Muvdi to viewers late last year.

She trained for several months before her trek and did it for an amazing cause. To raise money to help children who are battling cancer.

“I felt like if the kids can fight cancer day after day sometimes for years, fighting this horrible disease and they are resilient and they can smile, I can certainly do this,” said Muvdi.

Muvdi is the founder of the Jessica June Children’s Cancer Foundation, a non-profit she created in 2004 after losing her only child to cancer.

It has assisted 7,300 children and families fighting pediatric cancer.

“After the loss of Jessica, my purpose, my passion became also the mission of the foundation. It’s like intertwined- I am the heart of the foundation, and the foundation is me,” said Muvdi.

Jessica passed away in 2003 when she was just seven years old.

“My daughter’s memory kept me going. I was doing it for her too. I was inspired by her memory,” said Muvdi.

She had a goal of raising her flag and the end of her trek and she did it.

“I was so excited to take that flag out at the end. I was emotional when I left them. I had tears coming down my eyes,” said Muvdi.

She had a message for Local 10 viewers upon her return.

“Thank you for the opportunity to be able to share this experience with viewers. It was very important to the fundraiser to get the support of your viewers, because I could see that when the segment aired, we received a lot of generous donations, big, small, but I noticed we received a lot of donations on the day that it aired and that goes straight to the families we are serving,” said Muvdi.

Muvdi said her goal of $20,000 was far exceeded. Right after the story aired, she received a donation from a private foundation of $30,000. The total raised to help these families was more than $57,600.

If you would like to donate to the foundation, click on this link.

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