A New Heart for Noel

For over a decade, Noel has faced one of the rarest and most relentless conditions in medicine — and has done so with remarkable grace. Now, she needs our help more than ever.

Noel lives with Lymphatic Hypereosinophilia (L-HES), a chronic illness in which her own immune system attacks her blood vessels, causing aneurysms to form in arteries throughout her body — including dozens surrounding her heart. In 2020, her medical team at Stanford discovered a chemotherapy that finally stopped new aneurysms from forming, offering her a fragile but real sense of stability.

That stability is now in crisis.

Over the last four months, Noel has been experiencing multiple cardiac episodes every single day, requiring nitroglycerin up to six times daily just to get through. A walk around the block is no longer possible. Grocery runs, errands, the ordinary rhythms of life — all gone. She hasn’t been able to work since June, when she had to restart chemotherapy. After 11 years since her quadruple bypass, her heart has reached its limit. Noel needs a heart transplant to survive.

Toward the end of April, she will be admitted to Stanford Hospital to wait for a donor heart. Once she receives it, she’ll require around-the-clock care for three months and will be considered disabled for at least a year. On top of the medications already managing her L-HES, she’ll need approximately 20 new post-transplant drugs — many costing over $1,000 each, per month.

The financial weight of this is staggering for someone who cannot work and is fighting for her life.

Every dollar you give goes directly toward:

∙ Post-transplant medications and medical costs

∙ 24-hour care during recovery

∙ Daily living expenses while she cannot work

Noel has spent years showing up for life despite extraordinary odds. Now we get to show up for her. Whether you can give $10 or $1,000, it matters — and so does sharing this with anyone who might care.

Thank you for being part of what keeps her going.