Million Dollar Smile
Donation protected
Hi everyone. My name is Candace Neil and I am have created this gofundme page on behalf of my best friend. Below you can read her story.
Hi guys, let me start by saying I appreciate you for visiting the link to potentially help fund me with a lifelong health issue. This is very hard for me to put out there due to personal embarrassment but in hopes to put an end to my struggles I decided to be vulnerable and honest with the world. My story starts from birth. I was born with an disease that could have killed me as a child. Luckily the disease was caught before it was to late and for that, I am forever grateful. With that being said, the disease was in my body long enough to cause some permanent affects, one being my teeth. It was always known that my baby teeth would grow out rotten from the disease and the amount of time it was in my body, but my adult teeth had about a 50/50 chance of being healthy. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky! My adult teeth grew out just as rotten as my baby teeth causing lifelong embarrassment and health issues. Growing up money was never in abundance with my family, sad to say that meant we cut corners in ways that most should not, one of those ways being in the health department. My family kind of lived by an unspoken mantra of "if there is no pain then it does not exist". Over the years the decay on my teeth got worse. The decay lead to pain, the pain lead to a dentist appointments, and the dentist appointments lead to extractions (I don't know about you guys but have you ever tried eating a delicious meal with barely any teeth? Let all just agree that it doesn't sound like a very fun or easy thing to do). Although the extraction helped relieve the pain, it did not present as a great solution. After visiting multiple dentist offices and being told on numerous occasions how bad my teeth are I noticed I was starting to develop low self-esteem. To make matters worse, the infections in my mouth have started to travel up. Infections traveling up only have one place to go, the brain. Now as a patient I am scared. Listening to dentist after dentist tell me I need to stop the infection before it reaches my brain or it could be fatal freaked me out, and listening to those same dentist tell me I cant help you until you pay for the services left me feeling scared, frustrated, and defeated. To make a long story short as the years went by and my teeth continued to deteriorate, my only affordable option was to extract. Now as a woman in my late 20's and having a career where I speak to people all day everyday, I am starting to not only feel the physical pain caused by my oral problems, the pain of being judged for not "taking good care of my teeth" and the fear that soon the infection in my mouth will reach my brain and that will be the end to my story. I said all of that to say, it is time for a change and it is time to put my health first. With the help of your donations and/or you sharing this link in support of my goal, mixed with hope and prayer, I believe a healthy beautiful smile is on the way. Thank you once again for visiting, sharing, and donating. I appreciate you.
Hi guys, let me start by saying I appreciate you for visiting the link to potentially help fund me with a lifelong health issue. This is very hard for me to put out there due to personal embarrassment but in hopes to put an end to my struggles I decided to be vulnerable and honest with the world. My story starts from birth. I was born with an disease that could have killed me as a child. Luckily the disease was caught before it was to late and for that, I am forever grateful. With that being said, the disease was in my body long enough to cause some permanent affects, one being my teeth. It was always known that my baby teeth would grow out rotten from the disease and the amount of time it was in my body, but my adult teeth had about a 50/50 chance of being healthy. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky! My adult teeth grew out just as rotten as my baby teeth causing lifelong embarrassment and health issues. Growing up money was never in abundance with my family, sad to say that meant we cut corners in ways that most should not, one of those ways being in the health department. My family kind of lived by an unspoken mantra of "if there is no pain then it does not exist". Over the years the decay on my teeth got worse. The decay lead to pain, the pain lead to a dentist appointments, and the dentist appointments lead to extractions (I don't know about you guys but have you ever tried eating a delicious meal with barely any teeth? Let all just agree that it doesn't sound like a very fun or easy thing to do). Although the extraction helped relieve the pain, it did not present as a great solution. After visiting multiple dentist offices and being told on numerous occasions how bad my teeth are I noticed I was starting to develop low self-esteem. To make matters worse, the infections in my mouth have started to travel up. Infections traveling up only have one place to go, the brain. Now as a patient I am scared. Listening to dentist after dentist tell me I need to stop the infection before it reaches my brain or it could be fatal freaked me out, and listening to those same dentist tell me I cant help you until you pay for the services left me feeling scared, frustrated, and defeated. To make a long story short as the years went by and my teeth continued to deteriorate, my only affordable option was to extract. Now as a woman in my late 20's and having a career where I speak to people all day everyday, I am starting to not only feel the physical pain caused by my oral problems, the pain of being judged for not "taking good care of my teeth" and the fear that soon the infection in my mouth will reach my brain and that will be the end to my story. I said all of that to say, it is time for a change and it is time to put my health first. With the help of your donations and/or you sharing this link in support of my goal, mixed with hope and prayer, I believe a healthy beautiful smile is on the way. Thank you once again for visiting, sharing, and donating. I appreciate you.
Organizer
Candace Neil
Organizer
Chicago, IL
