Hi, my name is Shelley Janze, and I'm writing today to see if we can all get together and help out Merlyn Horton.

As you all know, Merlyn is self-employed. She has been an educator of online safety for decades. She has lectured in schools all across this province teaching kids and their parents how to stay safe online. She has devoted her time and energy to volunteering at the Mission Folk Music Festival for many years. She is a shining light to her family, friends and our community.

Merlyn has been in hospital for over two weeks with necrotizing fasciitis, following a minor surgery. This has included three surgeries since February 3. There have been many complications: ileostomy bag, internal bleeds, and at times, horrific pain events. Because of the ileostomy complications, she hasn't eaten at this point for over 12 days. She still has two more surgeries to go!

This incident will leave Merlyn without income over the projected 3 to 6 months of rehab and recovery time. She's lost about 20 pounds of muscle mass and will have to rehab and rebuild.

Since you are one of those people who know and love her, you know that asking for help has never been her strong suit. But she is going to need help. There have been no social media posts about this because she is on a very personal journey.

If you can in anyway, contribute to this fund, it will help her focus on healing instead of her beloved online safety presentations. I am sure she would appreciate it immensely.

She's still in hospital as of February 23, and while I know that you would love to visit her there and offer your love and support, right now, her focus is on healing and keeping up her notorious positive attitude and determination. We hope that she will be out of the hospital by the end of the month and then I'm sure she would love to hear from you. She will be needing your support in all kinds of ways when she returns home.

Until then, if you feel comfortable, and no matter the amount, let’s show Merlyn some financial love. Please contribute to this fund to help her get back on her feet and, once again, be the fierce woman warrior we all know and love.

You can also directly transfer her funds to Hatzicatgmaildotcom