Luke's Journey to a Double Transplant

Hafa Adai, family and friends. We are humbly seeking monetary donations to help Luke Richards and his mother and caretaker, Elizabeth, relocate to Colorado to seek a heart and lung transplant. Since he was diagnosed at 11 years old, Luke has spent his life in and out of the hospital due to complications from Type 1 Diabetes. Despite his hardships, he tried his best to live his life like other kids his age. He took great pride in serving at church by being an altar server, a singer in By God’s Grace choir, a confirmation facilitator, and traffic support during church events. He has always felt called to help and took pride in being able to serve others, through God, and now he desperately needs your help to make it through this difficult and fearful time.

Besides spending his time volunteering at church, he also aspired to continue his education at Guam Community College, but unfortunately had to stop attending class because he was losing his eyesight due to diabetic retinopathy. During this time, he was admitted into the hospital several times causing him to stop working and drop out of college. He is now legally blind in his right eye. In 2023 he noticed a significant decline in his health after becoming severely sick multiple times that year and sadly never truly felt like himself after this.

In 2024, Luke had a serious infection on both of his feet and was admitted into GRMC. After this hospital stay, he was admitted several more times due to additional complications from this infection, which caused even more decline in his health. His care team did more tests and concluded that Luke’s heart and lung function are severely reduced, functioning at less than 50%. The doctors informed him that they can treat him to keep the function at its current state, but it will only get worse from there.

Ultimately, his GRMC doctors deemed that there is nothing else they can do for him in Guam and advised him to relocate to the mainland in hopes of having additional health tests done and to hopefully be put on the transplant list for a heart and lung replacement. As you can imagine, living with debilitating health issues for almost your whole life can make one feel discouraged and depressed, but having the love and support from you all is what keeps him striving to make it another day. If you are unable to donate monetarily at this time, we also ask for your prayers and positive words as Luke prepares for this life changing journey. Thank you and God bless you.