Rally for Valerie: Urgent Liver Transplant Journey

Hi everyone! My name is Faith, and I am a close friend of Valerie's. We met in 2016 at the beginning of nursing school and became fast friends. Her eagerness to help, encouraging spirit, and enormous heart were apparent from the early days of school and have since lent themselves to her professional career as a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

For the last five years, she has demonstrated compassionate care, clinical skill, and an unyielding drive to advocate for these highly complex and critical babies.

This love of caring for our tiniest Texans was only amplified when she had two of her own, Jett and Dax! Valerie is the kind of mother every child needs, and man, do those boys adore their mama! Valerie is a devoted wife to her husband Marcus, a loving mother, and a beloved friend to many.

Valerie will be the first one to help you in a time of need. No hesitations, no need to be asked, she will simply be there. She will give the coat off her back to anyone.

Now Valerie needs our help.

This wonderful person in our lives is sick.

Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) is an autoimmune disease that causes chronic inflammation in your bile ducts and eventually leads to scarring. Scar tissue in your bile ducts causes them to narrow, which restricts the flow of bile through the ducts. When bile can’t flow, it backs up into your liver. This does progressive damage to your liver and over time leads to liver failure and, in most cases, the need for a liver transplant.

The typical time period between diagnosis and needing a transplant is 10-15 years.

Unfortunately, Valerie's disease has progressed much sooner and unexpectedly. She has been hospitalized twice due to complications and is now facing a very uncertain and very scary reality. We don't have 10 years—she needs help now.

We all know that timing isn't always kind to us, and the realities of her illness don't cause any of life's demands to yield.

With Marcus starting a new job, Valerie unable to work for the foreseeable future, two energetic little boys, the holidays approaching, and a growing pile of medical bills (with more expected), they truly can’t navigate this alone.

We are raising funds for this precious family to help carry them through this. Valerie and her family need to focus on the journey ahead without the stress of a financial burden.

Make no mistake, this is heavy—but it doesn't have to be if we can all help to lift it.