Michael Reddell - Help us get home!

Writing this appeal is one of the most difficult things we have ever had to do.  Through our employment and volunteer efforts; over the years, we have always done our best to help others.  For many years our bed was straddled by his and her pagers, ensuring we could always be reached in order to serve those for whom we were responsible.  We've made this very difficult request for your support in our time of crisis because all of a sudden we find ourselves in need.  

We are Michael and Terri Reddell.  For most of our married life, we lived in Martinsville, NJ.  

I, Michael, graduated from Rutgers University and worked for UMDNJ.  In addition to my work, I served as Co-President of HPAE Local 5094 at  Rutgers Medical School.  I volunteered and served for many years with the Martinsville Rescue Squad and the Martinsville Volunteer Fire Department.  I was later employed by Executive Contracting as well as William Annin Middle School and the YMCA in Bernards Township.

Terri spent many years in Property Management.  Her employment required her to manage the needs of the property and residents of Society Hill @ Bernards 1 for Taylor Management as well as Vanderhaven Farms for Access Property Management, to name a few. 

As I reached the age for early retirement, we decided to head south for the next phase of our lives.  Having visited Terri's sister in Apex, North Carolina and finding this area appealing, we sold our home of 37 years and headed south.  The plan was for me to retire while Terri continued to work a few more years before traveling the country a bit.  We very quickly found out that the best made plans of mice and men often go awry.  

The year before we left New Jersey, I went through my "pre-retirement tuneup"  I was treated for sleep apnea, had a hernia repair and two physicals.  With everything seemingly in good order, we were on our way.  We rented a small house while we worked on our search for finding our permanent home.

Within three months of living in NC I began to noticed changes with how things tasted, as I ate and found myself dealing with what I believed was a slight ear infection.  I found a local doctor and had yet, one more physical.  My expectation with this Dr. visit was to obtain a simple antibiotic to treat the issue I was having with my ear.  Within 24hrs, I was called back to the office. The diagnosis was tonsil cancer.

Each stage of my treatment has been progressively more difficult.  While initially the doctors reassured my prognosis was good for a full recovery and I should be back to feeling better within a few months after completing my treatments, putting things back to normal by September/October of 2018.  However, complications have now been ongoing, putting us well beyond a year addressing more and more issues and seeing more and more Doctors.   My progress has been so slow and my abilities are so limited.  Terri has been unable to work as planned, finding herself having to care for me 24/7 for over a year and finding my prognosis, at this point, unclear, we have found ourselves having gone through what savings we had and any money made on the sale of our NJ home. 


We came to North Carolina with full intentions of continuing our lives here.  Unfortunately, my health will not allow it.  With Terri being stretched to the her mental and emotional limit and our savings have been trashed, we have nothing left to continue living her and need to get back up North in order to have the assistance of our family. Our children have taken on some financial responsibility.  However, we cannot ask our sons to take on the entire expense of the move as well as our accrued debt and any continued debt as I work toward a very difficult recovery.  The only way we can make this happen is through the assistance of others.