Help Erick Repair Car to Get to Life-Saving Appointments

Hello, a lot of you, if not all of you, know me simply as “Erick,” and today I’m coming to you all with a hard and difficult situation I’m experiencing at the moment. A few months ago, I had a problem with my car that forced me to take it to a shop. After the shop looked at my car, it was determined that a bad piston caused the malfunction with my motor. After the mechanic shop looked over the motor, took it apart, and diagnosed everything, it was determined that repair costs would be $5,200. So I began saving and setting money aside so that I can get my car repaired and running again. In the meantime, I was getting rides from family and friends, using ride-share apps like Uber and Lyft, renting vehicles at times from car rental businesses and “Turo,” as well as even utilizing the VA patient pickup ride program to get to my doctor’s appointments, chemotherapy treatments, and just everyday tasks like going grocery shopping, taking my son to school and doctor’s appointments, and just trying to take care of daily errands.

Now all that brings me to this: as most of you are aware, recently I was told I have at max a year to find a cure to beat this cancer. So due to that, I was able to get the VA to approve me for oncology appointments with UT-Southwest in Dallas that are needed in order to get me to MD Anderson in Houston where a clinical trial is scheduled for me. Because of the lack of “time” I have, the VA and my doctors have been scheduling me for appointments in Dallas almost at a weekly and bi-weekly rate. So because of that, I’ve had to start using the money I had saved up to repair my car instead for flights and car rentals to Dallas to make it to my out-of-town appointments.

I’ve been hoping to get my car fixed ASAP because, for one, it gives me a second option of travel to make it to my appointments in Dallas when I can’t find or afford a flight last minute. Using ride-share apps like Uber has started to become expensive because of how many times I have appointments a week and during the month. Lately, it’s been hard getting rides from family and friends due to scheduling issues, and they themselves at times can’t due to reasons they may have, resulting in me either missing or having to reschedule some of my doctor’s appointments here in El Paso. Now, like I stated earlier, I do utilize the VA’s ride patient program, but there have been times where they weren’t able to help due to the lack of drivers that the VA was or has been experiencing, as I was told.

I know everyone has their own problems and things going on, and life can sometimes beat us up, but if you’re able to, I’m asking for help even if it’s just a little. I have so far $2,700 left in the money I was saving to repair my car, so I’m just trying to raise $2,500 to help with the rest. I really hate doing this and it makes me feel embarrassed, but it’s the best option I have right now due to my situation and everything going on with how much money I’m having to spend in a short amount of time to get to my appointments in Dallas. This situation has become more and more stressful each day just trying to figure this out on my own. I thank you so much to anyone that can help, and I am beyond grateful! Thank you so, so much.