One of my best friends is in the fight of her life.

Her name is Patti Graves and she is a survivor! She has cervical cancer that has spread to her bladder, spine, organs, and lungs. She didn’t know until she became eligible for Medicare. Patti is stage 5.

She’s being treated, but she’s living on her social security and is struggling with all of her new expenses. Unlike popular belief Medicare is not free. You have to buy supplemental policies to have good coverage. You still have premiums, copays and out of pocket. Already she owes MD Anderson $16k, and with time and more treatment that will increase. There are so many personal care items that insurance doesn’t cover. Also she needs healthy food delivered after her treatments, Uber rides to and from appointments, and care for her yellow lab and 3 kitties (all strays). This new treatment can cause blindness. Shes got to wear constant ice packs on her eyes, use steroid drops and lubricating drops. She’s been doing this virtually on her own. She’s in Texas and I’m in Hawaii. All of us (her girlfriends) live out of state. She’s surviving on virtual hugs and phone support.

Because her kidneys aren’t working correctly she’s wearing bags on both sides of her body. After chemo or an immune treatment she goes radio silent for weeks, because she’s too sick to talk on the phone. There’s nobody to cook for her, clean or help her bathe or change her kidney bags. She won’t leave Texas because MD Anderson is the top cancer center in the country. She’s been incredibly strong, but right now she is relying on the kindness of friends and strangers. She has no family, only us. She’s somebody who would give you the shirt off of her back.

She needs our help! Please dig deep and donate what you can. Please share this with friends. Please help her. Her friends need her. Her babies need her. She deserves to be happy, comfortable and stress free while she goes through this new treatment.