Thank you for your generous support of Jess Donovan and her family as they face the medical expenses linked to her Graft-Versus-Host Disease (GVHD).

For those of you who know Jess, you are familiar with her medical history - a diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukemia with a successful bone marrow transplant in 2019. In 2022, however, she started showing signs of chronic GVHD. GVHD occurs when the immune system of the host body (Jess) starts to perceive the cells from the graft's body (her donor), as threats and the host body attacks the donated cells.

In Jess, GVHD has resulted in severe, painful, and ongoing damage to her skin, mouth, and eyes. The damage to her eyes alone has resulted to a significant loss in sight, and the tightening of Jess's skin has resulted in limited mobility to her arms, legs, fingers, and joints. Her body is covered in lesions where her skin has been injured by GVHD and simultaneously cannot heal effectively or efficiently because of GVHD. The delicate nature of her skin makes sitting, walking, standing, being outside or exposed to sunlight, and sleeping uncomfortable, painful, and additionally detrimental to her skin health.

Since the GVHD diagnosis, Jess and her doctors have attempted all front line treatments, with no positive results, and are now attempting to ease Jess's symptoms with second line treatments. While beneficial, these treatments are exhausting, expensive, and also subject Jess to a significant increase in risk of infection. As such, in the early summer of this year Jess was admitted to the hospital due to septic endocarditis, an extremely dangerous infection in the inner lining of the heart. The prolonged bed rest at the hospital resulted in large, open wounds in the thin layers of skin on her backside.

Thankfully, Jess was able to beat the infection and is now back at home. Unfortunately, because she is no longer in an emergency state, her insurance is denying coverage for the extensive list of medical supplies she now requires, including (but not limited to!):

Jess's mom, Robin, has also taken off several months to care for Jess full-time and Jess's diagnosis has kept Jess out of work since April of this year. Needless to say, the financial impact of Jess's diagnosis has exponentially exacerbated the stress she and her family experience daily.

There is no quick fix to GVHD, and most of Jess' treatment is in the trial phase, which means that Jess and her family will be facing significant medical bills for the foreseeable future. We hope that you will join us in supporting Jess and her loved ones by donating.

With gratitude,

Becca & The Back Cove Books Team