Hey all,
Yesterday, JekyllnHyde wrote a community fundraiser diary for smiley7 and we’re going to continue that today, to try to get mr. smiley to his goal of $7000.00!
In the past 24 hours, this community raised $1188.00 for smiley7, and today, the first contribution of $206.00 will be matched!
Please help in any way you can, even just with some good thoughts, prayers, shout outs, and encouragement.
Thanks so much!
Shiz
Most of you know smiley7 as a longtime community member. Until a few months ago, his life in North Carolina was going quite well. He had a productive job which allowed him to accumulate some savings and plan for retirement. And then, in a story heard millions of times since the Great Economic Meltdown of 2008, a family emergency and lost income hit him hard.
Everything was going along fine, I live simply and my needs were covered; but in September, my Mom came out of hospital with Dementia and as an only child, I had to reorder my life, drop everything including my summer work and go to her home, three hours away, to care for her 24/7.
As she is of modest means, my savings account was depleted and my credit cards loaded up. Thankfully, we nursed her back to a more stable condition and with the help of extended family, my son and local friends, she's doing extremely well given her circumstances.
Then the next ball fell when my winter work in the ski industry was delayed; losing two months of normal full-time work, including our very lucrative Christmas season which equates to around 35 percent of our normal winter income.
Exacerbating an already difficult situation was what happened next. Not long ago, he was diagnosed with cancer and will be beginning a treatment program later this month in Knoxville, Tennessee.
There is no good time for a cancer diagnosis and were it not for Obamacare and the annual physical, I would not have known.
Since the confirming pathology before Christmas, I've exhausted myself in researching the best treatment alternatives. In the end I've taken the advise of my Primary Care Physician--a good one, he is-- two urologists and my oncologist.
They all separately concluded and recommended Proton Beam Therapy ruling out surgery and a combination of seed implants and radiation. I am satisfied with my doctors advice that this is the best treatment available for curing the cancer with the least harmful following consequences.
According to the The National Association for Proton Therapy, there are 20 proton centers now in operation and 16 new centers in development in the U.S. The nearest one to me in rural Appalachia is located in Knoxville, TN — around 180 miles away. One of my closet friends and I were very impressed with the facility and the good responses we received from the patients we met during my initial consult and MRI.
The facility opened in 2014 and has plans to build patient housing as many cancers do; consequently, I have to find accommodations in Knoxville for nine weeks. After the surgical marking procedure which is scheduled for March 28 and 29th, I will begin daily radiation treatments for two months the following week (Mon-Fri) for 39 treatments.
Here’s where we, the Daily Kos community, come in. To successfully go through this ordeal, smiley7 needs our good wishes and financial help. As best as we could calculate — without the benefit of certainty — we are aiming for a fundraising goal of $7,000.00. I know it sounds like a large amount, but we’ve raised far larger amounts for others in need.
- $4,000.00 for accommodations, food, utilities and travel. It could very well be more.
- $1,500.00 of pathology that insurance doesn't pay.
- $1,500.00 for car repairs, maintenance, and trips to visit his mother. smiley7’s 1987 Toyota Corolla is barely functional and the hope is that it will survive and serve his needs.
Most of all, it is our hope that his cancer treatments are successful and within the next three months or so, this nightmare is behind him.
Please help.
Here’s How You Can Help smiley7
-
Go to PayPal.com. Click Send Money to ‘Family and Friends’ which allows the recipient to get 100% of the donation. Enter smiley7’s email address gjournalist@gmail.com and amount you are sending. The sender's name is visible to the recipient, but unless you share your DK moniker he has no way of knowing which DK community member made the donation. Remember, every little bit helps and adds up in a hurry.
- If you happen to live in or near Knoxville, Tennessee or know someone who does and is able to temporarily rent a place to smiley7 while he undergoes cancer therapy, please Kosmail him directly.
- If you would like to send a paper check or money order (to protect your real identity) through the US Mail, please Kosmail smiley7 to get his mailing address.
- You can also help by recommending this diary, offering encouraging comments, republishing to your Daily Kos groups, linking to your Facebook pages, and helping to spread the word through Twitter.
If you have any questions, please feel free to Kosmail smiley7, or Johnny the Conqueroo. smiley7 will also be responding to comments made in this diary and posting fundraising total updates.
If you’re going to post a diary on smiley’s behalf in coming days, feel free to copy and paste any part of my diary into yours.
Saturday, Mar 5, 2016 · 1:47:41 AM +00:00
·
Colorado is the Shiznit
7:44 p.m. From smiley7, in the comments:
We’ve met the match and more this afternoon for a building total of more than $500 this afternoon, bringing the total raised thus far to at least $1,700.
Most of the activity is coming through kosmail and my email from folks who are getting the news from groups. An extraordinary re-publish list, thanks to the team efforts.
Thanks to all who contributed to help mr. smiley get the medical help he needs! :)
Also too, I never thought being in a bunch of groups that I rarely participate in would be so beneficial in the long run. LOL.
