Support Our Own: Hairstylist Kelly Hopper Needs Our Help!

I met Kelly Hopper after stumbling across her business page in Feb 2021. Within minutes together, we both realized that we were meant to be friends for life! She is an absolute hair wizard, a caring and devoted boy mom, and one of the best friends I have ever had. Kelly has been a hairstylist in our small town of Manhattan for the last 15 years and has been working in a salon since the age of 15. Hairstyling has been Kelly's dream and passion since she was 8 years old. She has worked her ass off to get to where she is in her career. Kelly has built so many relationships and friendships while behind the chair for so many years, and realisticly should have been able to continue her job for another 20 years.

Unfortunately, Kelly went to the hospital in April for unbearable neck pain that she has worked and fought through for over a year. She was admitted for 5 days to run numerous tests and to help control Kelly's pain, and finally get some answers. Kelly's MRI from 2 years ago showed a herniated disc and a few bulging discs, and she believed that maybe the bulging discs got worse, but her current MRI shows that Kelly now has Severe Degenerative Disc Disease, and her C1-C7 and C7-T1 vertabrae are pressing into the protective outer layer of her spine and fusing themselves into it, thinning out that layer, and is now causing Kelly to have seizures. She needs to have a spinal fusion as soon as possible to repair the discs in her neck. The surgeon explained that this isn't just normal wear & tear from her job as a stylist. This drastic progression of Kelly's spine in 2 years normally takes 20-30 years to get to this severe. Doctors are also now looking into autoimmune diseases for that reason, so more and more tests.

Kelly's pain is getting worse by the day, if not by the hour. Because of this, Kelly has had to step away from her career and has been forced to medically retire from the only thing she's ever really done & loved. The longer she waits before having surgery, she is risking paralysis every day. Kelly is a single mom of 2 teenage boys and has very little income, now that she is unemployed. The doctors won't have an official surgery date for another 2-3 weeks, and she has been trying to find a remote job that she would be able to do while preparing for her surgery. Even then, she will have a few rough weeks of recovery after a major spinal surgery.

Kelly has spent years getting to where she was at in her career, with no choice but to stop doing what she loves-helping others and making people feel their most beautiful. Kelly has spent the last few years getting herself as healthy as she can in order to provide for her boys. Let's come together and help relieve some of the financial stress so she can prepare for a major surgery without as much of the added financial stresses and expenses that are already building up. Every single dollar, every single prayer helps, so please consider helping Kelly and her family during this extremely scary and stressful time. Kelly & her boys, Carter & Casey, need our help!