Lauryn's Cure

As many of you know, my good friend Lauryn Matz was diagnosed with aplastic anemia in 2007. Aplastic anemia is a condition in which the bone marrow doesn’t produce enough new cells (white blood cells to fight infection, red blood cells to carry oxygen, and platelets to control bleeding).
It has been a long road since then, with ATG treatments, hospitalizations and the constant worry of the next time she'd get sick. In 2013, she relapsed. Again, she underwent ATG treatment. Two months ago, on Christmas Eve, Lauryn was admitted to Fairfax Hospital for a severely low blood count. This time she was told a bone marrow transplant would be needed to cure her disease. Unfortunately, Lauryn has been out of commission since then and has been hospitalized for weeks at a time.
Lauryn has finally made the extremely hard decision to go forward with the bone marrow transplant. In a few weeks, she will be packing her bags and moving to Baltimore to be near Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she will be receiving her transplant on March 22. The process is a long one. Currently, Lauryn is waiting to see if either of her sisters is a half-match; if not, she will be entered in a national transplant registry. Before the transplant, she will be hospitalized to undergo chemotherapy and radiation. Then, for the next 2 months, she will visit the hospital for many hours each day to receive transfusions and to be observed for complications.
It has been an extremely stressful journey for the Matz family. The financial costs are huge, and Lauryn won’t be able to return to work until 5 months after completing her treatment and she already misses her precious babies at the NICU in Fairfax Hospital where she works. Her 70-day stay in Baltimore is going to cost her a great sum. In addition, Lauryn's mom will be taking care of her throughout this entire process around the clock. So, she also will be out of work during that long period of time. So, I had the idea of asking our tight-knit community to help ease the burden, but it took a village to convince her to let us do anything like this. Lauryn doesn’t like attention or asking for help. The money raised will go toward housing, transportation, and medical bills. We would really appreciate any assistance you can give, no matter how small! Thank you everyone!