Hello,

I'm Mary Davis. I am a 40-year survivor of Neurofibromatosis type 2, which is a disorder that causes me to grow tumors on nerves, especially in my brain and spinal cord. I have had around 20 surgeries to remove tumors, which has caused a host of neurological deficits like complete deafness, balance loss, and loss of function in arms and legs. I am almost entirely a paraplegic or will be soon as I only walk when I have no choice. Last year, I was diagnosed with Adhesive Arachnoiditis, which happened as a result of NF2. The meninges covering the spinal cord have been cut or jabbed so many times that it has formed lumps and strands of scar tissue that look like spiders bundling the nerves together. This is one of the most painful conditions known to man. Life with these two disorders is very hard and very expensive. I must travel 600 miles round trip to see all of my specialists at UVA and the same for Vanderbilt. This must happen every three months, currently. I was supposed to go last month and found out my apartment building is closing, and I was given 6 weeks to move. This is added stress and expense.

I need help with:

moving expenses

getting the new place set up with needed accessibility items

an upcoming trip to UVA to see my doctors for exams

a trip to Nashville to get my severely neglected hearing implant updated and usable again. My current processor is now obsolete and no longer serviced.

And probably most important, I need to see about getting some trustworthy mobility equipment. I currently ride a ratty office chair around my home and need something that I can use when I leave the house.

If you can help at all, please do. I have no family of my own to depend on and my parents are gone.

Thank you so much for reading and your help.