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Wallace Family Medical Care Fund

When you’re a high school English teacher, you get to know your students—what their lives are like at home, and what they want their lives to be like in the future. In my time here at Woodmont High School, I’ve gotten to know the Wallace children—Ryan, Amanda and Kendra. I’ve taught Amanda and Kendra in my IB classes, and I’ve gotten to know their mom Colleen, an Inclusion/Educational Support teacher here as well. I’ve learned what struggles this family is facing, and I’m determined to do whatever I can to help them now.

 

Jeff Wallace has a very rare disease called Severe Combined Immunodeficiency. It’s a diagnosis with many tracks and patterns, all of which are terminal, and when he was originally diagnosed in 2004, he was given 6 months to live. He’s fought that diagnosis with everything he’s got, through significant infections, a bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy, the loss of his teeth, and the loss of his sight in one eye. He’s done that with the support of his wife and family.

 

Jeff and Colleen met in Florida when they were 15 years old at Disney on vacation. Colleen got Jeff's address and wrote him a letter, but she never heard back from him. The letter was actually delivered 10 years later, dirty and torn, and Jeff called her mother's house looking to tell her about it. They were married in Vegas in 1999. Ryan, Amanda and Kendra were babies when Jeff was diagnosed, and the family moved to Simpsonville from Massachusetts in 2008 for the weather that would be easier for Jeff to navigate.

 

Jeff began his career as a chef, and he actually worked at Disney World, for the country group Alabama, and in restaurants from Boston to California, until his illness forced him out of the professional kitchen. He’s is an avid Steelers fan. The Wallace household is decorated in so much memorabilia that the Simpsonville Sentinel has covered it in the paper. Even though Jeff’s illness and treatments have left him unable to eat solid foods, enjoy the outdoors, unable to do so many of the things he once loved to do, he still watches every Steelers game.

 

He’s still fighting.

 

He wants to be able to watch his daughters graduate from Woodmont and go to college like their brother. Amanda wants to be a doctor. Ryan wants to work for the Steelers organization. Kendra wants to own a bakery, to be a chef, like her dad. As a teacher, and as a parent myself, I want Jeff to see these dreams come true as well.

 

With the money raised here, Jeff will be able to pay bills that have collected around insurance shortfalls. He’s also hoping to have dental surgery that would allow him to eat solid food again, which would boost his energy and his morale. So he can keep fighting.

Mr. James Scott
Woodmont High School
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Donations 

  • Anonymous
    • $200 
    • 4 yrs
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Organizer

Jeffrey Wallace
Organizer
Simpsonville, SC

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