After our meeting in 1998, Claudia quickly became a very close friend to my husband Omer and I. We also befriended her sister Francesca and her parents Francesco and Angela who became a second family and home to us while in NY. Their hospitality and friendship were very meaningful to us!
In 2008, Claudia and her parents decided to move back to their home in Catania, Sicily. After Francesco's unexpected death in 2014 due to cancer, the family relationships, as well as the overall health of both Claudia and her mother, worsened due to a series of unfortunate events. Without the support and assistance of her husband, Angela eventually became vulnerable to how her children would care for her in her disability, as she also suffers from MS and is in a wheelchair.
This sudden change in family dynamics put strain and pressure on Claudia’s marriage of 14 years and also worsened Claudia’s physical condition (initially suspected as an effect of an earlier contraction of Lyme disease).
The unexpected arrival of Claudia's brother and wife from the US to Catania a bit over three years ago, created a stressful family situation; eventually, causing her husband to decide to end the marriage. In his overtaking the family's inheritance, her brother shifted his disabled mother to a care home, leaving no choice for Claudia than to seek refuge at a convent with assisted living care for seniors.
Claudia has now been under the loving care of the nuns of San Camillo along with the qualified staff at the convent/nursing home for 29 months, but her diagnosis of Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (SPMS) has been unattended to and has need of more intensive therapy.
Our kind, beautiful and talented friend is in need of your kindness and generosity. After years of praying for a miracle, she has accepted my offer to help raise funds for her to be shifted to the residential care of Padre Pio Onlus Rehabilitation Centers in Foggia, Italy; a trip which would require transportation in an ambulette with a nurse.
This is an award-winning foundation and is considered internationally for its' excellency in rehabilitation. Due to the use of modern robotic therapy and other specific rehabilitation therapies, Claudia aspires to regain her ability to again walk and to obtain balance, strength and independence.
We’re both counting on your empathy and generosity to help our dear friend regain her right to a fulfilling life. Of course, an update of Claudia’s progress will be shared with the kind souls who help our effort for funding the rehabilitation program at the chosen foundation.
God bless you!
We both extend a sincere thank you with much gratitude in anticipation of such kindness!
Omer and Tania Khan
Cambridge, UK
