My wife, Lee, and I have been married for 29 years.  We met in college while we both worked at the college library.  We have worked various jobs, raised two sons, both of whom are Eagle Scouts, and one who is currently serving in the U.S. Navy. We bought a house and lost it with the housing collapse.

Lee has worked for law offices, Health Net, Joann's Fabrics, Safeguard Dental.  She has donated time to Cub Scouts as a den mother,  currently serves the community as a docent at Dana Point's Ocean Institute and has been a regular blood donor for the Red Cross.

She has spent much of her time working on crafts, sewing, calligraphy, embroidery, cross-stitch, leather work, and book binding.  In fact, she has made shirts for me for the last 25 years.

This May provided a surprise for Lee and I: cancer.  A mammogram showed a tumor in her right breast.  After a few weeks of sheer terror we found out it was malignant, but Stage 1.  

Shortly after that another MRI  showed a second tumor in her left humerus.  After seeing a specialist, we were very grateful to learn that was a benign tumor.  

We have insurance, but we are faced with deductables, co-pays and time out of work.  Lee's current job has no sick leave other than the three days afforded by the state and no vacation time.  Our pay is barely enough to meet our current bills and rent.

We have not lead an extravagant life.  Raising two sons, one with dyslexia, kept us busy.  Jobs being sent out of the country has depleted our savings and housing market, our home.  

We would still like to pay for the work being done to keep Lee alive.  This includes  x-rays and MRIs, the surgery, anesthesia,  radiation treatments, the geneticist, and the physical therapy.  All these people deserve to be paid for keeping my wife alive, but we cannot make those payments.

This is where you can help.  We would greatly appreciate your donations and even more so, we would appreciate your sharing our request with others.  It is our hope that with many people donating, no one will need to shoulder too great a portion of the load.  With the economy today, I know many of you cannot afford to donate, but I hope you will share with others.