Help Jeremy and Melissa Overcome This Crisis

Jeremy and Melissa McCarty are Waynesboro natives. Many in our community know of Jeremy's late parents, Gary McCarty and Wanda McKee, as well as his late grandfather, Willie R. McKee. Prior to March 22nd, 2024, Jeremy worked as a transportation driver. As with many of his road trips, Melissa would join him traveling. An incident occurred while on the road in Illinois, about 80 miles from the Missouri state line, on March 22nd of this year. Jeremy began experiencing slurred speech and numbness in his arm. What seemed to have been some sort of an episode, was quickly over but happened again only 10 minutes later. They knew something was very wrong, so Melissa called 911. Jeremy was having a stroke. At only 48 years old, this was the last thing they expected him to be facing. An ambulance and a helicopter arrived on the scene. Jeremy was airlifted to a hospital in St. Louis, MO. Little did they know, they would be there for 2 weeks before Jeremy would be transferred to another facility to begin physical therapy, which lasted a month. Far from home with no transportation, medical bills starting to come in, expenses piling up, issues with insurance, the situation has taken a toll on Jeremy and Melissa in many ways. What they thought would be a simple recovery has left Jeremy without the use of his entire right side. He is continuing physical therapy locally now but has been given no expectation on when or if he will regain any function at all on his right side. As our community often does, we are rallying behind this couple and want to help ease the burden they are bearing. Let's show them that they are not fighting this battle alone. Any contribution will be immensely appreciated.