This site is to raise funds for Julie Wions, who at 42 is resiliently fighting her way through kidney failure and needs help as she awaits a kidney transplant. Julie is a young woman who I’ve known for almost 30 years. She started as my client but soon became a dear and close family friend. My name is Dena Moscola and I'm hoping this story will touch your heart like it has touched mine.

Julie is not a stranger to hard times. Over the years, I've witnessed her overcome multiple hurdles with an unwavering strength and persistence that is unmatchable. She learned at a very young age how to turn challenges into blessings and deficits into a source of empowerment.

Julie struggled much of her life with a severe case of Tourette Syndrome, including symptoms of depression, OCD, ADD, anxiety, and extreme sound sensitivity, to name a few. Then in her late adolescence, she experienced the hardship of participating as a caretaker for her father, her rock, as she witnessed his decline from ALS until his death. From the age of 8, doctors began medicating Julie, and by her early teens, she was medicated in heavy dosages in hopes to control her symptoms and manage her grief, which brought on tremendous side effects. At 18 years old, Julie experienced an adverse and toxic reaction from one of the psychotropic medications she was prescribed, which ultimately did its damage. Once given liberty, she weaned off all medications and learned how to thrive without them. But at the age of 25, her primary care provider discovered that there was something wrong with her kidney function, and later on through biopsies, it was confirmed that the adverse reaction from the psychotropic drug had resulted in kidney disease.

Along with a strong mind-set and the will to conquer anything, Julie has a heart of gold that is filled with undeniable gratitude, appreciation, ambition, empathy, and a lifestyle of giving back. She has used art and acting as a sacred way to cope and express, and has been on a path of service her entire career, supporting the geriatric community as a hospice volunteer, and assisting children with special needs. Currently, she is pursuing her license as a psychotherapist where she is entrusted with the humbling experience of holding and cherishing other people’s stories while helping them find their way. Regardless of Julie’s limitations, she has exhibited the utmost bravery, pushing to become more than her illnesses. She has won multiple awards in the arts, built a business, embarked on a new life across the country, without a place to live or job lined up, to chase her dreams and build her independence. She booked a voice over role as a series regular for Disney, achieved her masters with the merit scholarship, then traveled the world solo to experience new versions of herself… all of this coming from the young girl who was unable to drive around the block due to extreme panic, consumed by her symptoms. She has become a force to be reckoned with.

Julie has learned first-hand what a blessing it is to be nurtured by a community and support system who, she expressed with gratitude, “continues to keep me nourished and contributes to the utmost care toward my well-being. Life is not meant to be lived alone.”

Now it is time to expand Julie's support system as she navigates stage 5 kidney failure and she is in the process of searching for a donor. Although Julie looks healthy and her learned reflex has been to persevere and overcome, what she does not show is her vulnerability, the fear, sadness, hurt, and isolation that she is undergoing and the urgency of her situation. Currently, her kidneys are functioning at 15-16%. Julie has recently been accepted into Ronald Reagan UCLA transplant clinic, but due to the 10-year wait time, she is attempting to multi-list in other states in hopes of receiving a kidney sooner. Finding a live donor over a cadaver kidney will increase her life span exponentially, as well as transplanting prior to dialysis, but until then, uncovered medical expenses will continue to accrue. While she is involved with Renewal, an organization who supports live donors by reimbursing for lost wages, travel and other non-medical expenses, our mission is to incorporate ways of providing Julie support while she seeks medical care and awaits this transplant, and the unknowns that may follow.

Please consider a donation of any kind. $10, $20, $50 or more will assist Julie while she manages this new phase of her journey. Sharing this link is also welcome.

A message from Julie:

"Learning how to live regardless of limitation has been a lesson modeled by my resilient parents, a lesson I ripple forward and never take for granted. If hardship has taught me anything, it is to live life as fully as possible, with intention and purpose, and to love wholeheartedly, with zest, and with courage. My mission as a psychotherapist is to help others do the same. I hope to have the opportunity to live a long life, with a healthy new kidney, as I have so much to live for. Thank you for taking the time to read my story."