My name is Lilian and I started this fundraiser to help out my friend, and author Featherstone 'Stone' Carradine.

Stone is a 20 year sci-fi romance author, former DoD computer scientist, former climate scientist, former professional musician, and former STEM teacher (k-12, undergrad and graduate) who has been dealing with life threatening health issues that has impacted not only his ability to work and his finances, but his mental health, and his ability to enjoy meals.

He has had PTSD for over 10 years, according to doctors and severe GAD manifested as a symptom. But he was unfortunately diagnosed late.

Doctors believe the etymology is stress-induced peptic ulcer disease, which may have started as early as 2017 and went untreated, which explains the severity today and why he can only eat water, potatoes, corn and some bland chicken OR dehydrated beef. Everything else brings about a lot of pain. The ulcer disease kept worsening, other diseases developed, a snowball effect. Stress made the GI problems worse, which makes the PTSD/GAD worse, and so forth, and now he has also developed major depressive disorder .

Due to his several hospitalizations, his energy bill alone has ballooned to $1600. He spent his life savings of $600 and pleaded with the energy company but they refused to be accommodating in spite of the circumstances, including being involuntarily committed for a week, which has resulted in his electricity being off during a heat wave.

Working with a nonprofit and pro bono lawyer, he's issued escalation requests to get his SSI disability payments approved but so far, due to staffing and funding cuts in North Carolina, he's still waiting after seven months.

In addition, his pain management and treatment options are in jeopardy as he can't be prescribed pain meds by ER or GI doctors in the state, only doctors inside pain management clinics, and he has been on the waitlist for 4 months.

Please help us spread the word by sharing. We're urgently seeking donations to help my friend pay his bills and also have the option to go out of state for pain management and medical treatments.