Noel's Liver Transplant

Noel’s Christmas Gift

This Christmas, times are hard for many of us but particularly hard for Noel and his wife. He is waiting for the call that a suitable liver is available for him. Over four years ago Noel’s organs began shutting down. He needed a liver transplant but first had to ensure that his other organs were working well. Last Christmas was the first in three years that he was not in hospital. We were hoping that this Christmas he would have a new liver. They got the call last month to travel to Edmonton for the surgery but sadly when the surgeon checked the liver it was not considered good enough to transplant.

During this last four years, Noel has been unable to work and his wife has had to take a considerable amount of time off from her job in order to care for him. Because of his failed liver, he has suffered many infections and hospitalizations. She has been working part time in order to help him. Now she has had to go back to full time hours in order to keep her medical benefits which they desperately need. She does not make enough at her job to cover all of their present living expenses and when he does get the transplant, they will have to spend about three to four months in Edmonton so she will be unable to work. All of their personal resources have been spent.

I would like to give Noel a Christmas gift of reducing the worry about finances so that they only have to think about staying healthy and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

You see, Noel’s liver failure is through no fault of his own. He was a political prisoner for two years in Sri Lanka because of his faith. There, he was beaten and tortured which has contributed to these medical problems. I am constantly amazed at their faith and resilience in the face of all that they have suffered.

We thoughtfully came up with our goal amount by discussing future anticipated costs with Ranjini. We did our best to come up with an accurate monetary reflection of what treatment and recovery would look like for Noel .

However, the reality is we don't exactly know what is in store. We don’t know when a liver will become available, costs of staying in Edmonton will be high and we know there will be an extensive recovery time when neither of them will be working.

 

With their family scattered around the world, they have no one locally to help.  Please consider helping me to give this Christmas gift to them. Even a small donation helps to lessen the stress. Every $5.00 helps.

 

Please share this request with your friends so that we can all share in giving this gift at Christmas.