Steve Bernal's bone marrow fund

Steve Bernal fought leukemia 21 years ago and won the battle following a bone marrow transplant.  Now 21 years later, Steve has been diagnosed with bone marrow failure and just received 7 million stem cells on September 13, 2016.  He has reached day 100 and eagerly awaits his test results, but in the meantime, the cost of prescriptions, treatments and hospital bills is beyond overwhelming for he and his beautiful wife, Sharon.  It is a daily struggle with insurance to fight to keep their coverage and handle daily living expenses. Steve and Sharon are both very sweet and humble people who are don’t like asking for help and don’t know where to turn.  This is why we are stepping in and setting up this Go Fund Me account.  I am pleading with anyone who reads this to skip your morning Starbucks and donate $5.  You see, 24 years ago, my older sister was diagnosed with leukemia and was fortunate at that time to have a great employer and insurance that supported her through that. She is still in remission.  Until I had someone close to me come face to face with a life threatening illness, I didn’t really know what was important in life… PEOPLE.. People are important.  Steve and Sharon are in desperate need of financial support. We are trying to raise $10,000 for them and are hoping the reach of GoFundMe will get us there.  Below is their story. 

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Everyone has a story..."Steve’s journey" is unique. I've documented everything on Facebook under "Steve’s journey " also some on Instagram under sharbear77. Feel free to follow Steve. Going thru this once was scary but having to go thru it again 21 years later is mind blowing. We are so blessed Steve is here today.

      They say you should have a purpose in life. Steve's is a fighter. Steve's journey is so complex. Steve and our family in 1995 lobbied the Arizona state legislature. For months we fought along with Governor Symington and senator John McCain. We passed the tobacco tax bill, which allowed low-income patients to receive transplants. Can you imagine how many lives were saved from this?

       Back in May of 1993, Steve was diagnosed with AML leukemia. We only had days to decide on a doctor and hospital. We were told if he didn't receive treatment he would be dead in 3 months.  We were informed that we were too late to harvest sperm to have children. He almost died several times from complications.  He was pretty much hospitalized for a couple of years. 

      Once in remission, Steve and I had to fight with his insurance company to harvest his own bone marrow. The insurance company felt harvesting was too experimental. (Crazy again, I know!) Finally they agreed and we went to Salt Lake City to harvest his bone marrow. This saved his life! 

      He fell out of remission, we lost our insurance, and we lost everything we owned. He was fighting for his life once again. I think Steve was in hospital when we received state aid. Steve needed transplant, but the state said no for the transplant. I met a lady that made $100 too much in one-year to qualify. So an angel of a social worker and our governor and senator and our family fought to save Steve's life.

So here we are now... 21 years later. Steve has been diagnosed with high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS bone marrow failure). Steve had his second transplant on Sept 13, 2016. He is in the recovery stage now. He is still fighting but has a day-to-day battle. I'm trying to focus solely on Steve's recovery, which in itself is day by day. I've been off of work to care for Steve, I go back right before Christmas. I need my job, I carry our insurance. We have just been informed that Steve might go thru another round of chemo ...5 days straight each month, for 6 months. This is in order to give him a better survival rate. We are completely overwhelmed with medical bills and just day-to-day living expenses. 

      Please consider helping us, as God would lead you. Prayer is amazing. Prayer is keeping us going. This is so humbling. But I've fought in the past and will continue to do so. I would give this man my life to save his.  Please consider donating, the financial hardship overwhelming. 

      Attached is a link to a video of the 7 million stem cells given by our donor from Be the Match. God bless you.

-       Sharon Bernal