Help Keith Get a Double Lung Transplant

Keith is one of the most remarkable human beings I've ever met. He's dedicated so much of his life to serving and helping others, and everyone who knows him knows how easy he is to love. From planting The River Church Community in San Jose, CA more than 20 years ago and mentoring hundreds of young people as a youth pastor, serving as a founding board member and Spiritual Formation Coach for the Prison Entrepreneurship Program and publishing the book, How to Be a Great Dad, to establishing My Three Sons Professional Painting, he has always been a driven, committed, and deeply caring person and has touched more lives than we will ever know.

My name is Lori Friesen and I'm fundraising for my husband, Keith Zafren. Despite never having smoked and living an extremely healthy lifestyle his entire life (seriously, he is annoyingly healthy), Keith was diagnosed with lung cancer five years ago. Despite his diagnosis, we planned our wedding from his chemo bed (I know, many people thought I was crazy lol). We have enjoyed a very rich, love-filled blended family life the past eleven years.

However, over the past three months, Keith's health has taken a significant turn for the worse. In August of 2022, his excellent oncologist, Dr. Hao, at the University of Kentucky's Markey Cancer Center, informed us that Keith's cancer had progressed and that we were now out of traditional options. That led Keith to begin to pursue a radical and very promising new clinical trial performing double-lung transplant surgery for late-stage lung cancer patients at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. This dramatic new surgery has had tremendous success with two previous recipients. You can watch a remarkable video documenting their stories at the link below:

Keith has been hospitalized three times for pneumonia in the past three months. He was under the care of UK's Markey Cancer Center for two weeks, but his condition deteriorated to the point that the doctors at Northwestern requested that he transfer directly to Chicago to undergo two weeks of pre-transplant screening. It has been a very stressful and emotionally draining time in our lives, but we are thrilled to announce that Keith has just been notified that he has been cleared for transplant surgery!

Now that he is officially on the transplant list, Northwestern requires that we move to Chicago to wait for donor lungs as we need to be close to the hospital when a match comes available. This is typically a one to three-month wait. Keith will require hospitalization for a minimum of 2 - 4 weeks after his surgery and then is required to remain in Chicago for one year minimum after he is released from the hospital.

We have begun this fundraiser because there will be a significant amount of related expenses coming up for us over the next year and a half, including:

* living expenses in downtown Chicago (close to the hospital)

* moving expenses

* lost income as Keith recovers

* medical bills

* 20 different medications related to the transplant and following the surgery

* 10 different medications ongoing for the rest of Keith's life to prevent rejection of the new lungs

As if living in downtown Chicago wasn't a big enough expense, the hospital requires that we have 2 full-time adult caregivers for Keith at all times for the first three months minimum (in case one of us gets sick). Due to Keith's suppressed immune system, we can't be around him if we have any kind of illness - even the common cold will be dangerous to Keith in the first six months. So, we not only need an apartment in downtown Chicago... now we need to rent a 2-bedroom! Our poor boys - they have been real champs about stepping up and volunteering to take turns to come and help care for him, but I don't think they'd ever forgive us if we asked them to sleep on the couch for all that time!

April 25th: Next Steps

Keith still has to get a couple more small procedures here in Chicago over the next two days. He needs to get a heart stent put in to ensure his heart is strong enough to endure the 10-hour surgery, but then we can drive back to Lexington on Saturday. We have 2 weeks to pack up our beautiful house (I'm crying thinking about leaving our gorgeous backyard oasis in exchange for the city...) and put it up for sale to move to Chicago by May 15th. Keith will be strong enough to accept a lung donor 30 days after he has the stent put in, so please send us all your positive vibes because this guy could be breathing freely again by the end of June if we have our way!

We would be so deeply grateful for any help in covering these upcoming expenses which will allow us to save and extend Keith's life. Thank you from our entire family.