Once hoping to make the 2000 U.S. Olympic taekwondo team, Raquel Roman now has a different battle on her hands.

Suffering from a possible circulatory system problem in her neck, the 26-year-old Pueblo resident suffers constant pain and recently underwent chemotherapy to try to solve it.

Her mother, Rosemary Roman, is holding a second fundraiser on Saturday, a dinner at the Circle Lounge, to try to pay for some of Raquel's mounting medical bills.

The event will be held from noon to 6 p.m. and will feature a raffle for several prizes, including a fox fur coat. Cost is $6 for adults and $4 for kids.

Raquel said her latest problems began in May when she was home visiting to watch a boxing match with her father. She'd just begun her "dream job" of being a financial adviser in Denver when she came to Pueblo with a headache and fever, which persisted.

When she told her mother she'd had the headache for four days, her mother feared meningitis, which Raquel had had before, and took her to a hospital.

Raquel stayed for the 5 weeks and began a monthslong cycle of tests, doctors and visits to hospitals here and in Denver.

Eventually, the family was told that chemotherapy may help Raquel. She's tried a cycle of it, but doesn't know yet if it has helped.

The medical problems have cost Rosemary $60,000 and her father another $15,000, she said. Now, she has problems paying for more tests or procedures.

A Denver hospital she was told to take her daughter to now won't treat her because she doesn't live in Denver, she said.

And Raquel said a stent placed in her because of a kidney problem can't be taken out unless she has the money for the surgery. She doesn't, and the wire-mesh tube is causing secondary infections, she said.

All this comes after Raquel was first knocked from her dream of trying for the 2000 U.S. Olympic taekwondo team by a car accident in 1999, according to her mother. The crash left her too badly injured to go on training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, she said.

Despite being severely injured in the crash, Raquel taught herself to walk again and strengthened her body to start the next phase of her life as a financial adviser, her mother said. Then came the headache and now everything is uncertain again.

Rosemary herself has had to drop out of her studies for a nursing degree, she said.

"I couldn't afford school and take of care of her," she said. "Nobody takes care of her like I do. I've truly learned that with the hospitals."

So Rosemary said she's going to keep trying. A doctor in Penrose has offered to get Raquel tested for Lyme Disease, which can mimic other disorders, she said.

And she'd appreciate whatever help Pueblo people can extend.

"I'd be grateful for anything at this point," she said. "I am completely tapped."