Help for Hope

This fund is to help my sister, Hope Cassity, with mounting medical expenses. The doctor has ordered a bunch of tests to start ruling out things that could be wrong with her. She hasn’t been able to work in a while and is in extreme pain most of the time. She just lost her health insurance and was denied Medicaid (which we are fighting). Facing financial ruin in the midst of a medical crisis has been extremely stressful for her. The goal of this fund is to ease a little of the financial burden so she can focus on pain management and treatment. I’ve attached her personal message below. Thanks so much for your donation and your kindness!! From Hope: This is such a difficult post for me. I’ve been helped so much by my community during my cancer battle and remission and i have been humbled by the amount of support I’ve given throughout this journey. I thought truly that I was on the road to recovering from ovarian cancer and the aftermath of chemo. I have tried so hard to self sustain financially through the aftermath of cancer but my health has constantly been deteriorating the past year. The past six months testing has shown us that there is a need to investigate secondary cancers and rare disease especially in my case and as we do not know a diagnosis my testing so far has shown signs consistently that point in that direction. As of yesterday I met with a complex case team and they are concerned and have set up a battery of test and are trying to get me approved for some research studies there as well. If I’m being honest I haven’t been this sick since before my chemo and my body in the last week has been getting weaker and sicker. I’m having new bruising for no reason especially on my back near my spine, swelling belly from 24 inches in am to 42 in eve. They have ruled out lymphadema and post chemo swelling completely as of yesterday. I have lymph nodes enlarged and many other signs that there is something serious going wrong but the cause of it is being sneaky and not clear yet until we get back more tests. Unfortunatley, to complicate matters I’m losing my insurance coverage tax credit because my current income is too low to meet the criteria for the healthcare tax credit I was receiving. I’ve been mostly too sick to work other than art and it isn’t enough income to put me back in the bracket I was in before when I was touring full time. There is a GAP in coverage for all people in this bracket and Medicaid has denied me bc I don’t meet their criteria of having cervical or breast cancer. I have appealed but it’s unlikely I’ll get approved . If I did have one of those two female cancers I’d be covered no questions asked with tenn care immediately but bc mine is ovarian cancer I am excluded from receiving any assistance with health coverage through the Medicaid program. My only hope at this point is to sign up for a new plan immediately and pay a $600 premium for a major medical plan through the marketplace. Then file for disability. Disability will take two years to go through and I don’t have that time to waste bc I need answers now. The doctors have enrolled me in pain management in the interim to help me be more comfortable and I need that coverage to receive the care they are offering I am acutely aware of the state of the world and how uncertain times are financially. I know not everyone can help and that’s okay. If you could help me by sharing my story that would be enough. If every friend I had just donated $1 we would have met the first goal my sister has set on the fundraiser. I need your help while I’m so sick to come up with a way financially to have coverage so I can fight whatever this is and the doctors can find the answers so they can treat me. I’d love for you look at my art page and donate thru a purchase of a piece of my art rather than just making a donation so you have a piece of art as well!!! I’ll post link in comments. But y’all I love u . I’m in shock and scared. I’m at a loss for any other way to work through this alone at this point. I really need your help again while I battle this next fight. Some folks prefer to donate directly thru Venmo or PayPal and if so PM my sister Sherry Tilson as she is organizing the fundraiser. If you can’t donate please share. I’m hopeful and optimistic always believing that I can get thru this and that this is just another obstacle that I will overcome. Thanks in advance for reading. Please share and copy and paste this into the post. I’m scared. But I’m certain that HOPE is stronger than fear. Love - Hopie My art page is at https://hopecassity.com/art-merch