Hey everyone, my name is Octavius Blidge and I need your support and helping hands. I've always walked the same quiet path behind his childhood home—a narrow trail carved between alleyways, where the air smelled of earth and memory. Even when life became heavier, when responsibilities piled like fallen leaves, that path always felt like a friend waiting patiently for me.

But back when I was twenty-nine, I became to moved slowly, my breath shallow and tight. Congestive heart failure had taken the easy rhythm out of my steps, and end-stage kidney failure had turned everyday life into something measured by medications, clinic chairs, and soft-spoken nurses.

I used to be strong. I used to carry groceries in both arms, laugh loudly, drive delivery trucks, delivering alcoholic beverages. Back then, I could barely walk ten minutes without resting, yet I still came to this place, to the trail where I once chased dreams that didn’t feel so fragile.

For the first time in my life, I wasn’t thinking about lab results or dialysis schedules. I was thinking about who I was going to be and provide for my kids, because my father died when I was in the third grade. I always had a good heart, given to the individuals, who needed help, but now I'm hoping for that same kind gesture. I was the sickest patient in the hospital Father's day 2023. On this particular day, I coded and they were bringing me back, numerous of times. Today I'm walking, but I have a permanent footdrop. For ten whole months, I was underneath the hospital wristbands and being fatigue, waking up to a port in my chest to get dialyze. The world around me was quiet—not empty, but peaceful in a way hospitals never were. I closed my eyes and felt the weight of everything I had endured, the appointments with the doctors, the fatigue, and the fear of not being able to provide for my family. Doctors didn’t say it outright, but their eyes did. Yet in this moment, beneath the fading sky, I didn’t feel broken. It's tough after recovering, and this support will help me travel back and forth to Jacksonville, Florida and Emory in Atlanta, Ga, so I can get back to providing for my kids. Thanks in advance. You all are greatly appreciated!