Hello,

I'm Nicki. My good friend of more than 10 years, Deborah, is almost out of money to live! I don't want her to be homeless, but there is only so much I can do for her by myself.

When I met her she was working, but she was a bit frail. She has fibromyalgia and then started having symptoms no doctor seemed to be able to explain. I took her to many of these doctor appointments. It was frustrating getting no answers. She has Medicare and it seemed like the Medicare doctors did not actually care, as the name would imply. Some said it was just the fibromyalgia. We knew it wasn't.

After her symptoms started getting worse, she was forced to stop working (this was before remote work). She started running out of money and was forced to take her Social Security early, which left her with a much smaller amount per month. She received some inheritance but that was 6 years ago and it is almost gone. She was frugal and made it last as long as she could. I helped her complete paperwork to apply for SSI disability, but they turned her down. Given her medical issues, we were surprised.

Shortly thereafter, she finally found out why she was having all of the symptoms she had been having - CANCER. What?! She was told she had to take radiation treatments. She barely survived and lost her sense of taste for a long time. Later she asked the same oncologist why they couldn't do surgery and he said, "Oh, we could have done that." It would have saved her so much anguish. For an entire year, she slept most of the time, never felt well enough to eat much and she lost 40 pounds.

Of course COVID made things even more difficult for her. She only really goes to the grocery store (when she can) and always double masks for fear of getting sick. So, she has a strong will to live, but with homelessness looming in her future, she does not know how long she can go on without help. She can work remotely, but has had trouble getting work.

The money you generously send will go for rent, food, medical, and other necessities until she can get steady work. It will not be used for anything else. By the way, I put her recently deceased cat as her profile photo because she misses him so and because she won't let me take her picture in her current state. Maybe when she gets back on her feet I can talk her into posting one.

Please help my friend stay housed and fed. Thank you SO MUCH!