Hello! My name is Sissy Dinkle and I'm a member of the Nashville music community. Many of you know my good friend Kateri Farrell who has lived here in Nashville over the last 10 years, and right now she is in a bad position and needs our support.

As you may know, Kateri is an accomplished flute player and vocalist that has done extensive touring and performing with many artists such as Stephen Marley and Jason Eskridge over the years. She works so hard and is truly one of the most talented, kind, and caring individuals I have ever had the pleasure to know.

In 2021 while living in a lower level apartment in Florida she contracted Toxic Mold Poisoning, which has since turned into a chronic illness, causing her pain, burning and difficulty breathing whenever she tries to play her flute or sing. She has had to get rid of all of her things except her flute (which is barely an exaggeration - all her clothes, furniture, heirlooms, other instruments, photos, records, art, you name it.) because the mold spores were making her so sick she was essentially going into anaphylaxis. This has lead to her being unable to work for extended periods of time as well as a lot of medical debt she has been unable to pay due to her inability to work, on top of having to spend the money to replace all of her things.

Her illness has also lead to the much larger problem of housing insecurity due to the fact that she has to live in a mold free home that follows very strict guidelines in order to not become ill and need to seek further medical treatment. Her credit has been affected negatively due to the large amounts of money she has had to borrow in order to pay her bills, medical debt and replacing all her belongings, so it has been difficult for her to go through the normal channels to find housing of any kind let alone a place to live that is mold free and won’t make her sick.

Along with the Toxic Mold Poisoning she is also living with Hashimoto's disease, an extremely severe thyroid condition which causes a lot of other autoimmune compromisations, and her medical advice so far has largely been to avoid stress since that will trigger the negative autoimmune responses. I’m not sure if you have ever been living on the generosity of others with several crippling illnesses, no home, inability to work, large amounts of medical and general debt, and barely any belongings – but let me tell you it’s hard to “avoid stress” in that situation.

This week she lost the house she was living in due to mold sickness and was forced to break her lease and move back in with a friend. This was the 4th or 5th place she has unsuccessfully tried to live in the last 6 months. She reached out to me letting me know she is currently researching an air purifier that will make it easier for her to find a house to live in that wont make her sick, but if one is available it will cost upwards $2,000 which she does not have.

She has asked me to help her raise about $2,000 for an air purifier, but I’m asking you to help raise enough money to make any dent in her medical bills past that and help her regain housing stability. With $8,000-$10,000 she would be able to get the air purifier she needs to stabilize herself, pay a deposit and a couple of months rent for a space that won’t make her sick, and hopefully have enough overhead to have the space to rest for at least a few weeks without the worry of needing to figure out a job or alternate way to pay her bills. Anything past this immediate need will go to repaying her medical debt, credit card debt, buying replacement furniture and clothing… The list of needs goes on and on.

If you know Kateri you know how kind and gentle she is, how loving and generous of her energy and talents she is. She never really asks anything from anyone even when she is in need. So I, as her friend and community member, am asking you in her stead to please find whatever resources you can spare to send her way and help her get back on her feet. It has been a long 5 years dealing with this Toxic Mold Poisoning. She still has a long way to go until she is operating at full capacity again and it will take so much longer to get there without our help.

Please consider donating whatever you feel you can and even if you have no financial resources to give at this time, sharing this page with your community and raising awareness for her situation is also a huge help - Lets get our friend back on her feet!