Martina has just been through one of the most difficult experiences a person can face. A second liver transplant. An emergency admission. A months-long fight to stabilise, to recover, to simply get through each day. She has done all of this with extraordinary courage, and without ever asking anyone for anything.

This page is not her idea. It is ours; the friends who have watched her go through this, who have sat with her, worried about her, and who want to do something concrete to help. Because on top of everything the medical crisis has taken from her, it has also taken something she cannot easily afford to lose right now: her financial security.

Here is what happened.

Martina is self-employed, a partner in a creative agency, and like many self-employed people, she had made careful financial provision to support herself through a period of illness and recovery. She had planned, as best anyone can plan for something like this.

What she had not planned for was what came next.

Two weeks before her transplant, Martina’s condition deteriorated rapidly. She was admitted to hospital as an emergency, under her private health insurance, and began an intensive period of tests and monitoring. Her treating physicians and surgeon were clear; she needed a liver transplant immediately. She was placed at the top of the transplant list. Her insurance company confirmed she would be covered.

A week into her stay, they changed their position, informing Martina, in a hospital bed and critically ill, that a significant portion of her care would not be covered after all. She was given seven days to pay.

During those seven days, she was transferred to the public hospital system, where she would go on to receive her transplant, and was focused entirely on surviving what lay ahead. The bill was paid. The financial buffer she had so carefully set aside for her recovery was gone.

Martina is now recovering after a successful transplant, and she is doing so with the same quiet determination she brings to everything. But recovery from a major organ transplant is not a short road. Her rehabilitation will take at least six months, and liver transplantation is a lifelong condition requiring ongoing management and care. She has navigated this before, and she will navigate it again, but she should not have to do it under financial stress. Nobody should.

She cannot work during this period. The money she had saved to carry her through it no longer exists. And the weight of financial uncertainty, on top of everything her body is working so hard to do, is simply not what is needed right now.

We are raising €20,000 (or 18,500 CHFs)to give Martina the financial stability she needs to focus on one thing only: getting well. Any funds raised beyond what Martina needs for her recovery will be donated to charities supporting others who face financial hardship as a result of medical costs, because (and appallingly so) this situation is not unique to her, and because that is exactly the kind of person she is.

She would never ask for this herself. She is not that kind of person. But we are asking on her behalf, because we know her, and we know that she would do exactly this for any one of us without a second thought.

Every contribution, of any size, goes directly to supporting Martina through this. Thank you for reading. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for anything you are able to give.