Richardson's Battle

Richardsons Battle Written By: Paul Smith - Goose Creek, SC I know you have seen a link for a million different Go Fund Me Accounts ranging from fund my trip to Italy to my baby needs a new nursery...this one is different though, this one is about my friend, my brother. I am setting up this account for my dear friends LaMarr (Mann), and Tammy Richardson. LaMarr and Tammy have been there for each other in the best of times and unfortunately now in the worst of times. LaMarr had a heart attack at the young age of 38, it was by the grace of God that he is still here and recently celebrated his 43rd birthday. Life has been tough after this as LaMarr can’t work due to suffering from progressive Coronary Artery Disease. After having several surgeries and 4 stents placed in arteries around his heart LaMarr became a stay at home father to his beautiful 3 children still living at home. Through this tough time his wife Tammy worked in order to keep the family financially afloat, things were tight, but it was always a very happy home. In January of 2016 Tammy was having some stomach pains and at the urging of her husband went for a colonoscopy. She being only 42 and having NO history of cancer in her family wasn’t worried for this upcoming procedure. They say in a blink of an eye your WHOLE life can change, for the Richardsons that is exactly what happened on January 14th 2016... Tammy was awoken from the simple colonoscopy being told she had colon cancer and her bowel was about to rupture. She was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery and awoke hours later in horrible pain. When she looked down to her shock and horror there was a bag attached to her body. She was still in disbelief from all that had happened to her that day and now she had a bag attached to her body in order to use the bathroom. LaMarr was by her side the whole way. She had to wear that bag for three months and finally it was time to have surgery to put her back together and she was so excited to feel normal again. This surgery had its own complications and she was in the hospital for three months. She was away from her children, she had lost her job of 15 years which included losing her health insurance. By this point any savings they had was gone and this one income family was down to a no income family. Tammy’s colon cancer has spread to her liver and what she hoped would be a quick recovery has turned into a long everyday battle. She goes weekly for chemo treatments and could write a book of all of the terrible things chemo comes with. A friend told Tammy this is not going to be a quick sprint, but a long marathon and that saying has held to be so true. This family still is very close and fighting the good fight everyday, but are struggling so much financially and I am asking you to please help them. They have 3 beautiful children at home that they are still trying to make things seem as normal as possible for. Hailee 15, Amber 13 and Christian 11. These kids are amazing! They are there to help their parents while still excelling in school. Tammy and LaMarr have done the best they could since Tammy’s diagnosis, but financially things are crumbling for them. To start with they have medical bills that exceed anything they could ever pay. They don’t know month to month if they will be able to purchase the medicine that they both need to survive daily. Feeding and clothing 3 growing young adults is such a struggle. Again, they have 3 amazing children at home who help with EVERYTHING that they can around the house, they are outstanding in their school work and who ask for nothing, but deserve so much. Hailee the 15 year old will be 16 in December. Her parents asked her if she could have a sweet 16 party what would she want, her response...I would like to be able to invite 4 friends along with my family to go to CiCi’s Pizza. Again, selfless, sweet hearts these kids have and LaMarr and Tammy would give you the shirt off of their backs. Please, you took the time to read this...please take the time to donate in order to help lessen the stress this family has so Tammy can work on getting better, not worrying everyday if they will even have a place to live. Thank you for listening and thank you more for helping my friends.  Please Read - Donate - Repost. l