Christina's Pink Fund

Hello friends,

We are Eddie and Christina Mayes. We have 3 beautiful children and reside in Palmyra, PA. As God would have it, with the help of close friends and family, we have weathered many storms in our 18 years of marriage that threatened our financial stability (i.e., loss of both our jobs Jan 2012 and then our house in April of that same year, just to name one of the biggest). Through that experience, we learned that God gradually grows our faith by allowing his loyal love to shine through caring relationships. And last year he set us up to witness that love like never before.

After having my position eliminated in Oct 2013, God led me to full-time work with benefits -- benefits we had gone without for years. My wife Christina jumped quickly to schedule exams and check-ups for herself including a routine mammogram. This proved to be perfect timing because they detected a form of breast cancer in its early stages that the exceptional surgeons at Johns Hopkins Medical Center were able to completely remove via a single mastectomy with no radiation or chemotherapy required...Praise God! Although the health insurance covered the bulk of the costs, our deductible of $6k was well out of our financial reach. As we tried to wrap our heads around this amazing miracle of healing awarded to my wife, the engine in our '97 Toyota Corolla, with 190k+ miles, blew a head gasket during Christina's recovery.

With Christina's time off from work fast approaching its end, we had no options that would enable us to bypass the financial commitment needed to restore us to a 2-vehicle household. After getting advice and counting the cost on what would be best, we agreed to having a used, lower-mileage engine installed to replace ours. With the $6K medical bills previously mentioned, this decision set us adrift in $2k of additional expenses.

There are two more surgeries needed to restore Christina's body to some sense of "normalcy" after the mastectomy. Thankfully, since the insurance contract year runs from September 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015, if the reconstruction surgeries are performed before August 31st, those surgeries will be 100% covered by the insurance co. However, because Christina is not yet an employee at The Hershey Company, her position as a contractor does not provide paid holidays, sick days, vacation days or short-term disability. This means that in order to have the surgeries, enough money will need to be saved up prior to the reconstruction to cover her loss of income for 6 weeks (approx. $3,000).

Prior to these events, we were 10 months away from being debt free. Now we are facing more than double the debt we had before and are still unable to save any money to allow Christina to move foward with her reconstruction. We are asking for donations to help us pay our medical debt and cover the loss of income during her recovery. Please accept our deepest gratitude for any amount given.

Thanks and God bless.