Our friend Feral is fundraising for basic healthcare needs, and especially for a stable mobility device, one with big wheels and a low seat so as not to be tippy on sidewalks. Here is a picture of the one she hopes to buy. Feral is no longer able to drive, so the mobility device is key to getting around.

If you know Feral, you know what a beautiful, talented, kind soul she is. Please share this and give if you are able. Read on for more of Feral's story below.

Here is a short version of Feral’s story:

Nine years ago I left the U.S. to try to find ways of treating newly diagnosed Lyme disease. I’d had the disease for 30 years undiagnosed. When I finally got lab results, I spent a year reading 10’s of books and 100’s of papers while traveling across the country looking for an affordable place to live where there were affordable treatment options. I came up short, and ended up in a tent in a friend’s back yard in Pasadena, CA. looking for airline tickets to India or Thailand. It was counterintuitive to move to a foreign country where I didn’t know anyone at a time I was so sick, but my option in the U.S. was to give up on my health and find some sort of institutional living. I got on a plane.

I always knew I’d have to come back to the U.S. at some point when I needed to use Medicare. I’d hoped for a few more years, and I let myself get too weak to come back. That same Pasadena friend came to the Republic of Georgia to come and get me. I may be poor financially, but I am rich in friends and community.

I ended up having 9 amazing years in Thailand, Nepal, and the Republic of Georgia, in which places I was able to be marginally middle class, and to find many ways to stablize and sometimes improve a chronic neurodegenerative disease. Much of this time I spent simply being sick in other places. Sometimes friends at home thought I was off having great adventures, when the biggest adventure was often finding a new cafe that had chairs which gave me brief respites from pain. It often seemed to me a sad waste of international living, but there were so many unexpected benefits that came in spite of my limitations.

I’m starting a Substack column to flesh out the details of my story. I haven’t wanted to discuss much of it in public venues, but I’ve had so much help from reading others’ stories that I want to add mine to the mix. The details of my health condition and its history will be in my first substack post, or feel free to contact me for more information.

In short I’ve returned home to the same poverty and health care situation I fled 9 years ago. I brought with me many new ways of working with chronic illness, and countless lessons from the great gift of living abroad. I also returned to a need to fundraise for basic healthcare needs. Any help is appreciated. I’m starting a Substack column to flesh out the details of my story. I haven’t wanted to discuss much of it in public venues, but I’ve had so much help from reading others’ stories that I want to add mine to the mix.

Here's the cost breakdown: $3295 for scooter, $595 long-range package, $600 for shipping.

Any extra would be used for basic needs in these hard times. Thank you.