<div>Emma has a painful disease and she was halfway through her surgical treatment plan when her insurance (Manitoba Health) took away her coverage for life sustaining, medically necessary treatment. Now she’s fighting to continue her care and get her life back. Emma needs our help. 
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<div>In 2021, while recovering from an injury sustained in her career as a nurse, Emma Cloney was diagnosed with the genetic condition lipedema. Lipedema is a connective tissue disorder, characterized by abnormal accumulation of adipose (fat) tissue in the body beginning in the legs and arms. Unlike normal adipose tissue, however, lipedema tissue is non-metabolic, meaning it cannot be affected or reduced by diet or exercise. It is a painful disease and, if left untreated, can lead to additional health conditions such as impaired mobility and obstruction of the body’s lymphatic system.
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<div>The treatment for advanced lipedema patients involves a very specialized form of liposuction which must be performed by trained specialists in order to remove the affected tissue without compromising the lymphatic system. Multiple surgeries are often necessary in order to treat all areas and safely remove the tissue. There are currently no doctors in Canada that specialize in the treatment of lipedema, so Emma was forced to seek treatment out of the country. In January of 2022, Manitoba Health approved Emma to receive lipedema surgery from a specialist in California. Between January and June of 2022, Emma traveled to California three times for treatment, each time requiring a referral for treatment from a local plastic surgeon. Although Manitoba Health covered the surgical costs and certain expenses, not all expenses were covered, forcing Emma to spend her retirement savings in order to pursue treatment.
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<div>In September of 2022, her fourth surgery referral was suddenly denied mid-way through her course of treatment. Manitoba Health rejected this referral, claiming that the surgeries she had been receiving were now considered an “emerging treatment”, and as a result would no longer be covered. This decision was made without any new medical research to justify their position. Emma was left in an unspeakable position, forced to choose between abandoning the treatment she had begun, waiting for an appeal board to overturn Manitoba Health’s decision, or paying for the costly procedures out of pocket.
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<div>With her condition worsening and unable to wait an indeterminate amount of time to continue receiving care, Emma had to make a decision. Unable to afford the treatment from her original surgeon on her own, she changed care providers and traveled to Germany to continue her treatment at her own expense. This forced her not only to incur crushing debt, but also to have to overcome navigating international travel only a week after major surgery without any sort of support person or caregiver by her side.
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<div>With an appeal date now set, this GoFundMe campaign is being created to help Emma deal with the expenses which Manitoba Health refused to cover, as well as the cost of her treatment once she was unjustly denied.
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Cheryl Smith

Vanessa Kuzina

Janice Kupsch

Josie Peitzsche

Anonymous

Buddy MacDonald

Sheena Grobb

Martin Surasky

Jeremy Penner

Vona Guiler

Tom Naughten

JONATHAN HUNT

Daina Leitold

Romi Mayes

lee starck

Cheri Frazer

Help Emma finish her Lipedema surgery

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

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NextDoor Share Option Users

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US + Non-charity COs Only

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fund country is US and user language is English

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user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

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Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

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Mark Rieth IP Address

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Fund is in English speaking country

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Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

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checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

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International Only

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Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

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Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

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Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

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AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

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Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

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Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

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UC Tipping v20250107

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Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

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NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

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Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

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Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

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CAD Donation Upsell Audience

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NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Help Emma finish her Lipedema surgery

Still $25,477 to go. Help us build momentum.