Ivan

I’m fortunate enough to have a job that provides me with amazing health insurance that covers things like the surgery I talked about in my last post, so I don’t have so much to worry about.  (Obviously everything went just fine; the doc said that once she got in there, it did turn out to be worse than she expected—severe rather than moderate dysplasia—but they got it all out and I’m good to go.)

Not everyone is so fortunate.

            My friend Ivan is an amazing individual who has fought a long battle with Multiple Sclerosis, and is still fighting it.  After his insurance company determined that his MS was not a “pre-existing condition,” they changed their minds and took back the several thousand dollars they had already paid the hospital for his treatments.  This . . . didn’t go over well with the hospital, and now they’re looking for Ivan to foot the bill.
            Ivan is an incredibly vibrant, talented person educated in computer technology who is unable to work without full use of his hands, and thus unable to afford the health insurance coverage he was denied, let alone the full cost of his treatment.  Luckily, when the company that provides his prescriptions saw a copy of last year’s tax return (showing an income of zero dollars), their policy was to stop charging him for his meds altogether. 

            Despite this difficulty, Ivan volunteers with a disaster preparation organization I belong to as well (which is how we met), devoting his time to helping others. Now he is the one in need of help.

            For the last five years I’ve done an annual fundraising campaign for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, because my dad is a Lymphoma survivor.  This year instead of campaigning for an organization, I want to campaign for this one person.  One person who I know needs help, I know exactly what he needs help with, and I know exactly what every donated dollar will go towards. He even posted the receipt from the first payment he made. 

            Ivan started an online donation campaign, and has already raised over a thousand dollars, which is awesome, but nowhere near the amount needed.  I figure, I have this outlet, why not put it out there?  If one person can help, with even five or ten bucks, it’s worth it. 

So here’s the link:  

            https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/dvc2/teamivan  

 

It’s not a Kickstarter campaign; you don’t get anything in return for it; you just get to know that you helped someone—one person—who needed it.  

Thanks for reading.  

(P.S. Don’t let the picture scare you—he’s just got a funny sense of humor.)