I am initiating this campaign on behalf of Mike Morical, a US poet and writer who has recently encountered emergency medical needs after living frugally and without complaint with Parkinson’s disease for 15 years.

(donations also in USD - just was set up in UK!)

Mike is an internationally published poet with a long background in Asian literature and languages. He lived many years in Taiwan and Japan, where he studied classical Chinese and Japanese literature. In 2016, Mike relocated from Taipei to Chiang Mai, Thailand, in order to access more affordable medical and nursing care. Incredibly, despite the devastating effects of Parkinson’s and the debilitating side-effects of the drugs necessary to lessen its symptoms, Mike maintained autonomy until this year, living alone in a small studio apartment in Chiang Mai.

In late May 2025, Mike was admitted to a public hospital in Chiang Mai to treat a minor issue. While there, he contracted a dangerous VRE infection, which cannot be treated with antibiotics. Amid a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances, Mike’s emergency contacts were out of town, and it took over a week for the hospital to be provided with the list of his Parkinson’s meds. By this time, Mike was suffering severe withdrawal symptoms from the lack of his meds, in addition to the effects of the VRE infection. Due to the overcrowded and understaffed conditions of the public hospital, Mike was strapped to his hospital bed 24 hours/day so that in his slightly delirious state he would not remove his oxygen supply, feeding tube, or other monitoring devices. For almost a month, we could not get Mike transferred to another facility because of the highly infections nature of the VRE infection.

Mike’s current prognosis is great compared to just a week ago—thanks to donations from Mike’s community of friends and fellow poets, and his extended family, we were able to move him from the public hospital to a nursing home which includes daily physical therapy and more personalized care. He is making excellent progress, and was recently able to call his brother in the US for the first time since hospitalization.

We are seeking to raise USD $6000 (approx 4500gbp) to cover Mike’s hospital bill. After being immobilized for a month, Mike has a bedsore that requires surgery. However, the local hospitals will not consent to perform this operation until his previous bill is settled. While the bill is incredibly cheap for a month’s hospitalization by most standards, at the time of his intake Mike had only $200 on hand, as he focused the entirety of his material and mental resources on maintaining his poetic practice within the struggle against Parkinson’s. Therefore, we are reaching out to our broader community of friends, writers, artists, and expats to ask for contributions to help Mike continue his physical and cognitive recovery, and return to his creative writing process, which we believe makes the world a better place.