Alaysha's Keratoconus Fund

When life gives you lemons, trust God and make lemonade! My daughter, Alaysha Ford was diagnosed with Keratoconus her sophmore year in college. Keratoconus is a rare degenerative eye disorder that causes the normally domed shaped cornea to thin and bulge into a cone shape. This results in distortion of vision, increased sensitivity to glare/light, and reduction of visual acuity. Instead of losing hope, I am proud to say that Alaysha graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Alaysha has been teaching and coaching in the Houston area for the past 5 years. She is a very dedicated teacher and coach to her students, as well as athletes. Alaysha also works diligently with the youth at her church, the Fountain of Praise. Due to her compassionate spirit, she can be found on some weekends voluntering at various shelters bringing hope to others with a beautiful smile on her face. Since her diagnosis in 2008, Alaysha has gone through a long process of wearing soft contacts, glasses, and hard contacts. A few months ago, she woke up to very limited to fuzzy vision due to the hard contacts popping out of her eyes due to the cornea worsening. In fact, the doctor declared her legally blind until her new contacts could be made to restore proper vision. On her last visit in March, she was referred to a specialists in cornea transplants. This specialist gave her no hope and told her that she would need a transplant before summer ended to prevent possible blindness. Determined to find another option, Alaysha took her story to social media where she was referred to a doctor in California that could perform procedures to stop the progression of the Keratoconus.  Dr. Brian Boxer, inventor of Holcomb C3-R, gave her hope. She qualifies for 3 procedures that would allow her to live a normal life without the Keratoconus progressing. He was very honest and up front about the urgency of these procedures, if she wants a chance to return to life before Keratoconus. His tests showed that Alaysha's vision has degenerated from 20/30 t0 20/60 with contacts since visiting the cornea transplant specialist. Without these procedures, Alaysha will be forced to have a cornea transplant. Cornea transplants are quite painful, take many slow months to recover, and involve a tremendous amount of time off from work and other activities of life. They also require the recipients to be on life-long steroid drops afterwards. After much prayer and research, Alaysha has decided to move forward with a chance for normal life by having Dr. Brian perform the necessary procedures to stop the progression of the Keratoconus. The procedures are very expensive and not covered by her health insurance. The cost must be paid before the procedures can be performed.  As a mother, my heart bleeds for my daughter. I am asking for your prayers and hoping that God will place upon your heart to make a donation towards the 24,600 needed to stop the progression of the Keratoconus and restore my daughter's vision to normal. The procedures are scheduled for July to allow sufficient healing time needed for her to return to work this fall. Thanks in advance for your prayers and donations....trusting Philippians 4:19