Medical care for Mike Papale

Many people in our community know Mike and Kaye Papale and their children Oona, Sammy, and Luca. You may also know that for more than a year Mike has been battling stage 4 cancer and is currently paralyzed from the neck down. Over the last year Mike has been in and out of the hospital, often for months at a time. After every imaginable treatment was exhausted, April 10th, Mike came home with hospice to be with his family.

Since moving here 6 years ago, the Papales have been such a huge part of the Gateway South community, that not having them around feels like someone knocked out one of the walls. Mike has led production, life groups, and had just joined the pastoral team as Care Pastor before his diagnosis. Kaye has played the drums for services along side him, while Oona was a fixture in youth.

They served everyone who needed them. Now they need us. Someone in Mike's condition needs a lot of care. Kaye lost her job when he came home because she needed to be there to literally be Mike's hands and feet. While it is a labor of love, it is a LABOR, and it's exhausting and taxing physically, mentally, and emotionally. She needs a break so that more of these moments can be spent with their family loving and embracing each other.

Private in home care costs at least $20-30 per hour. These professionals provide the type of personal care that friends, no matter how loving, can't give and that family can't give 24 hours a day without falling apart. Even just 4 hours a day, 3 days a week would cost from $240-$360 a week and that is minimal time for Kaye to rest so that she can be the loving, gentle, caregiver to Mike that she wants to be rather than exhausted and in pain herself from so much, at times literal, heavy lifting for someone unable to move their own body.

It also gives Mike time to enjoy just BEING with his family instead of needing their help.

Despite being paralyzed, Mike has gone back to work using video as his leave time has run out, and the family has many bills to pay. Let's give them this gift of time and care and rest. Through our gifts, we can help be Mike's hands as he has been the hands and feet of Jesus to so many of us.