A 33-year-old Tamaqua mother of three boys lost her fight with cancer, and funds are requested for funeral expenses.

Crystal Tonkin had Leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer, and died Tuesday about 5 p.m.

“She would open her eyes for the last couple of days. That was it,” her uncle Scott Cramer said.

Tonkin was diagnosed Dec. 7. Prior to that, she felt ill and went to a doctor. A small lump was found on her breast, Cramer said. Antibiotics were prescribed because they thought it was an infection due to breastfeeding her 2-month-old son, Cramer said.

Husband John, 36, took her to St. Luke’s Miners Campus in Coaldale on Dec. 6 because she was unresponsive, Cramer said, before going to St. Luke’s University Hospital, Bethlehem Campus. Chemotherapy was administered once, but not continued.

“She knew what was going on,” Cramer said.

Tonkin came home to a relative’s house to be with her family. She was with them when she died.

Three of the last four days she opened her eyes but didn’t move from her bed. Tuesday she was unresponsive.

Billie Brobst, her aunt, said Crystal was at peace with her diagnosis.

“She was just more worried about her husband and her children,” Brobst said.

She will be missed.

“Her smile lit up the room. There’s not enough words for me to describe her,” Brobst said.

Cramer started a GoFundMe request for $8,000 for funeral expenses. To date, $3,180 has been donated.

Additional contributions will go toward helping the boys, who are 11, 7, and 3 months.

See Crystal Tonkin’s obituary on Page 4.