Every so often I receive an email from a survivor in need
that is out of state and looking for assistance. In many cases, they are in
need of assistance that isn’t available – like direct funding to pay for non-medical
bills or expenses. When I receive calls like this, I try to keep in mind that
even if we don’t offer this type of fundraising, there’s no reason why I can’t
offer them some form of hope, an outside of the box option. I recall a few
years ago, when I met a woman through a friend of mine who was a breast cancer
survivor, the woman’s husband had a terminal form of brain cancer and she was
struggling. The fact was that he was unable to work, they had two teen girls at
home and the mom had to work full time and try to find the time to care for her
daughters, unfortunately they had limited resources available to them. When I
met her and her husband, it was long before UCAAN had grown to what it is now. I
spoke to her about what she needed, her response was that she needed money to
help pay for her eldest daughter to be able to go to college, she had just been
accepted to University of San Francisco and needed money in a pinch to pay for
her daughter’s campus housing. She hadn’t told many people about her husbands’
condition, and she was hesitant to reach out for help because she feared how
they would respond.
As we talked, I told her that we’d have to approach this in
an outside of the box sort of way, she agreed. What we did next was write a
story about her husband, and what he was dealing with, a true story that was
heartfelt and to the point of what help they needed. I helped her set up a
paypal account and had her link it to the email, along with photos of the
family, the next and final step was probably the hardest for her: sending the
email to all of her contacts. I sent out the first set of emails for her and
she sent out the next – she felt like a weight had been lifted off of her
shoulders. I even had her email the request to me, so I could pass it on to
others that I knew.
The next day, I received a phone call from her, she was
crying. She told me how she had received multiple donations from friends and
family members, loving and supportive phone calls and had already reached the
goal she needed to send her daughter to USF and more to help her pay many of
her overdue bills. She was so thankful, and I was so glad that I was able to
help her.
This is only one of the stories of people that I have helped
through UCAAN. But I felt that I needed to share one of our current survivors
who contacted me in December and had found out about us on a Google search. She’s a breast cancer survivor and works in
the military; she’s in remission but now is facing the burden of medical bills.
She doesn’t live in California, she’s out in Kentucky. Since we don’t offer the
type of funding that she needs, I gave her the options I knew about. They were
few and far between, but some of them had some possibility of helping her. So,
I researched it and looking into what other options were available to her that
weren’t in our resource database. I knew just what she had to do. So I called
her with her option, I provided her with the information about a personal funding
site called GoFundMe. I explained to her how the site worked, and how she could
benefit from it. I told her to write her story and what she needed, how much
she wanted to raise and to include a photo. I suggested that she build the page
and send it to people she knows, so they can spread the word.
So, I am doing my part, by sharing her page for people that may
want to help - remember every bit counts - I have paid it forward! Sometimes it's better to give than to receive, because I know that my small gift can make a lasting impact in the life of another. http://www.gofundme.com/1w87xw
