It is with a heavy heart full of love and compassion for my beautiful and brave best friend – and with her permission, that I am going to divulge the details that you need to know to understand why I am asking for your help today.

Kirstyn Knowles is a force in the lives of the people that love her. She is graceful, selfless, kind, and she has been a hard worker her entire life. Kirstyn makes everything she does worth it, and her laugh lights up the room. I know firsthand what a great friend she is, and I could tell you all about the many times she has saved me from myself. Her mother Amanda could tell you all about how her beautiful daughter is a very forgiving and understanding person; that Kirstyn is what we call “the strong one” amongst our families. Kirstyn’s brothers, Tyler, and Ryan would tell you how funny she is, and all about how her presence makes her nieces’ day. And John, Kirstyn’s husband, could tell you all about how she fell in love with him within weeks of getting to know him, maybe even days. He could tell you about how brave she’s been the past 3 months and how he just wants to give her everything he possibly can to make her happy with her new life.

I call her life “new” because it will be very different. She will still be beautiful, kind, brave, graceful, and most of all... the strong one – but, she will be all these great things, with prosthetics. To the people that know and love her that may not know this yet, I am sorry that this is the way you are finding this information out, but things will be moving forward whether we want them to or not and we need to work together to make sure she gets the best care possible, and she can’t afford for us to sugar coat anything.

To anyone that does not know Kirstyn’s situation, she has suffered the effects of infections caused by a defibrillator lead. Kirstyn was born with heart disease, and 14 years ago she had a defibrillator set near her heart, and two years ago the defibrillator was put on recall. A few months after that, there was a growth found on the lead, but it was not significant enough to remove, at the time, even though she was told it could eventually cause an infection. Unfortunately, within the last year the lead did develop an infection, meaning that every time her heart pumped blood through her body, it also pumped infections through her as well. She’s been in the hospital for two months now, and due to complications, that developed from the infection, some of her limbs did not make it. As the only way possible to save her life, those limbs had to be amputated.

I know this is shocking, that she deserves so much better than this and that we are all going to wish we could do something to change this for her. The hard truth here is, the only thing we can offer her right now is support. If you reach out to Kirstyn or John, please, only offer words of support and encouragement. Kirstyn still needs time to herself; she and John ask that you respect her wishes and please do not ask her questions or overwhelm her. If you need/want more information because it affects your donations or simply because you are a family member that was not aware yet of her condition, please message me. Kirstyn made the decision to let me try to raise funds for her situation because she knew this could help her - but she is anxious about the idea of everyone knowing right now, so please be kind and respect her wishes.

I am asking for donations to help with medical bills, the costs that come along with rehab and to help John make sure Kirstyn has a house that has been made functional and comfortable for her to come home to. What Kirstyn is facing is not a sprint, it is a marathon of moments that are going to take all Kirtyn’s strength, courage, and grit. The last thing she and John need right now is to be worried about the financial burden.

If you cannot donate here on Facebook for some reason, the Venmo tag associated with the account for her donations is @Kirstyn-Knowles.

And we know times are tough so if you cannot donate right now, PLEASE, please share this!

On behalf of Kirstyn and John, and their families – we thank you so much for your donations, shares, words of encouragement and most of all, your prayers.

I also ask that if you have any experience with situations like this one, to please send me information you have on prosthetics, programs that could help her mental and emotional state going forward, fundraising ideas, and anything else you can think of to help her have a full and happy life.