Help Needed: Deb recovering from Health Crisis

Hi it's Mel here, I am a friend of Debs and I have created this crowdfunding campaign to help support Deb after her recent challenging and debilitating health issues, including being in a locked-in state for 1 year where her brain and body shut down (similar to a coma), and have left her with a number of complicated health issues (more details below).

She is currently without a car of her own, without a home or house to live in, and she is unable to work much right now. Deb has been a champion in the arts for over a decade, supporting thousands of artists, musicians and creatives, pouring her heart and soul (and all her money) into her arts organisation ‘Create or Die’. She is an incredible human, an inspiring and resilient woman, a multi-talented artist, musician, producer, to name a few. She is also such a kind, giving soul, and on many occasions Deb has gone above and beyond to help and support others in the arts.

Now it’s our turn to give back. That’s where we need your help so that Deb can get back on her feet and overcome her current health challenges, and thrive again.

Overview of Debs recent health events

After Deb suffered a number of intense situations in her life at once, including having to close down her beloved arts organisation ‘Create or Die’, having sudden PTSD flashbacks triggered after the bushfires (she was in a bushfire tornado that ripped through her family home & had to run for her life with her brother), and other personal situations that compiled together, Deb's health took a turn for the worst and was in a ‘locked-in state’ (similar to a coma) where her brain synapses snapped. This means that her brain was not producing any chemicals needed to function and her neural pathways stopped connecting - her brain and body basically shut down.

For a whole year, she could barely walk and talk, she could only lay in bed and was completely isolated, fully reliant on her mother looking after her.

After a long recovery thanks to some incredible doctors, she slowly started to re-learn how to function day-to-day. [She wrote a piece about it here for uni last year: ]

This is a very rare circumstance that most people don’t recover from. But we all know how resilient and strong Deb is, and she made it through.

However she still has a journey ahead, with a number of expensive specialist medical treatments and tests - she was diagnosed with several medical conditions afterwards such as chronic pain and fatigue, ADHD, a tic disorder, PTSD and other neurological conditions that have steeped from or have been exasperated due to this health crisis event. Plus the impact of not having a stable home and work due to her limited capacity adds stress to her mental health.

She needs our support in order to help her get ahead again. We all know how generous Deb is, it’s time to gather as a community and give back.

What your donations will go towards:

$4,000 medical costs for specialist appointments, scans and medication

$1,000 emergency accommodation until she can purchase a campervan

$2,000 assistance with buy good quality food and supplements to help improve her health

$15,000 campervan purchase - so Deb can have a mobile home and car to see her friends and family and travel for work easily with her therapy dog River, between Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney.

$3,000 rego, insurance & roadside for 1 year

Total $25,000 minimum needed

Debs Career Summary

Deb started out in the event space, as a director of a not-for-profit youth organisation whose aim was to provide kick-ass events for young people and to teach them skills in skate, bmx, blade, hip hop & graffiti art. She was also the ACT representative for Youth Week for 2 terms and sat on the advisory board for 2 federal ministers for youth, and planned many programs and events to help young people know their worth and value in society and find their passions.

Moving forward Deb pursued study and a career in Events and after working for Event Agencies, she branched out with her friend and formed their own Event Production & Design company - it was a great success with huge clients and big budgets, but Deb felt like it left her empty and she wanted to help people through creativity, self expression and help foster community - so she made the difficult decision to “break up” with her business partner and make ‘Create or Die’ her full time passion.

Prior to this, she had formed ‘Create or Die’ in 2008 and it existed online and with pop-up events and collaborations. Shortly after, Deb helped open one of the first creative co-working spaces in Australia. During this time she operated Create or Die arts events, gatherings, workshops and talks out of this space and other pop-up collaborations.

In 2014 Deb opened the first Create or Die arts centre in Marrickville which included artists studios, film studios, workshop spaces and hosted art events. She also provided Artist Development to many artists - which included discounted artist studios, exhibition assistance, portfolio advice and helped connect artists together to curate multi-platform collaborative experiences and shows.

Many of the artists involved in Create or Die have gone on to do incredible things and have retained collaborations and friendships that grew beyond the walls of the physical spaces.

During these years, Deb fostered her own career in Film Producing and writing and has made several award winning short films and hopes to make her first feature film in the coming years as part of her recovery process.

Also to note: During COVID Deb facilitated a digital art initiative, where she used her venue to live-stream events, music and arts to help support the arts and to share this with people isolated at home. This was hugely successful and she helped many artists keep earning income during this extremely challenging time.

You can see some of Debs creative and producing work here:

Website: www.debmorgan.net

Instagram: @createordie

Facebook: @createordie

How you can help

Let’s gather together through community to help support Deb through gifting a financial donation. Any donation makes a difference, from $10 (the price of shouting her a coffee and croissant), or $50 (the price of shouting her dinner) or $250 (the price of paying for a one-on-one session for her abundant knowledge and mentoring in the arts) - all donations will be an incredible help for her. Also if you need an extra reason, it’s her 40th birthday this coming April so it’s a chance to give her an early present!

And if you are not in a position to donate financially, please help spread the word with your friends and share how Deb impacted your life on social media.

Thankyou in advance for your support and generosity.

Much love x