Help Mark Coleman's Family With Medical Expenses

Mark Coleman, Cave Spring High School class of 1978, has Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). A deadly, always fatal disease that afflicts adults generally in their fifties. The link below is to a 60 Minutes piece on FTD rightly named "The Cruelest Disease You've Never Heard Of" Please watch this short article as it will make the rest of this post much more meaningful.

https://youtu.be/w6vejeqobQE

 

As the disease normally goes undiagnosed or is misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's or dementia, the personality and behavioral changes go unexplained. In Mark's case, he lost his job two years before he was finally diagnosed with FTD due to behavioral issues caused by the FTD. Since then, five years later, his FTD has worsened and has left Mark without speech, loss of short- term memory and loss of his physical condition due to obesity - a side affect of the FTD as he cannot control an insatiable appetite. Mark is despondent, unempathetic and can become aggressive. All side affects of the FTD.

 

In November 2021, his wife Janet had no alternative but to admit him to a full time memory care facility. The total monthly cost of the facility and treatment is in excess of $7,000.00 a month. The financial situation is not good and the monthly cost for Mark is quickly draining what retirement funds there are.

 

Financial Synopsis:

-Mark's Social Security Disability is less than $2,000 per month

-Mortgage payment - $1,450 per month

-Home equity, net of mortgage - $95,000 +/-

-Retirement funds (all sources) - $170,000

-Life insurance on Mark - $5,000
-Mark lost his job five years ago (age 56) due to the FTD. He was unemployed without income until he was diagnosed two years later, at which time he began receiving disability of $2,000 per month
-Janet worked as many as three jobs during the time Mark was unemployed and undiagnosed

-Mark is 61 and is not eligible for Medicaid 

-Janet is 57 and will draw on Mark's Social Security survivor benefits upon his death but not until she turns 65 (8 years from now)- $2,000 per month

-Son, Alec, lives at home and works full time

-Daughter, Jessica, lives in Roanoke and works as a social/emotional coach for Roanoke County Schools

-Janet has no family that can offset the cost 

-There is no inheritance coming to Mark or Janet

-Janet works full time at Carillion Heath as a service coordinator and receptionist which provides the family health care insurance

 

Our, classmate, neighbor and friend needs our help. His family is being financially devastated and faces financial ruin without intervention of a large monetary infusion. Please remember Mark and Janet did nothing wrong - no bad decisions, risky lifestyles, carelessness. Nothing they did was responsible for their dire financial position. Their situation is a direct result of Mark contracting FTD - The Cruelest Disease You've Never Heard Of.

 

Please put yourself in their position and give generously. If this was your wife, husband or partner that would be left behind after your death, wouldn't you want the community to come to their aide?