My name is Heather and I've started this page to help raise money to help get my dad(Richard Downs) a lung transplant. My dad has already been battling this disease for a year and a half without having a definitive answer to what was causing his symptoms. But in October, my dad was diagnosed with a rare lung disease called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. This disease causes scar tissue to grow inside of your lungs and makes it hard to breathe. And as the lung tissue thickens, your lungs can't properly move oxygen into your bloodstream. This illness is chronic and fatal. His only option is to have a lung transplant. As of lately, my dad has been spending several days 2.5 hours away from home at the Mayo Clinic down in Jacksonville, FL. He has had countless appointments getting poked and pricked having a very large amount of tests done. As if this wasn't already scary, his doctor recently delivered even worse new. My dads lung are delining very rapidly. The doctor put a time limit on how long he's estimating that my dad will have left with us. So while I'm just praying for a miracle that we somehow have enough time for him to get a lung transplant, I recently found just how much a lung transplant costs. This procedure is over $500,000. Even though insurance will cover some of the cost, we are still left with coming up with over $100,000. And they want proof that the full cost can be paid for. I am hoping by making this page, it'll make it's way around and by the grace of God my dad will be able to get a pair of lungs.

If my dad is lucky enough to receive a pair of lungs, he will have to reside in Florida where he can be no more than 20 minutes away from the hospital for a minimum of 3 months. I've included into the goal the cost of his living expensives while he is down there to try to make this less of a burden on him.