Hello, for anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m Katie, Katie Thomas to be exact. Three years ago, I had a stroke at my job working in the city and spent four days in Lennox Hill Hospital trying to figure out what was going on with me and how at 25 someone could go through that. I was battling with depression after the loss of my father back in 2020. To me, my dad was my hero, a man who cheated death at 21, dying and coming back 20 minutes later after being brutally murdered. That day in 2020, when my dad collapsed in the kitchen and I tried to perform CPR as best as I could, he was brought to the hospital and unfortunately, later in the evening, I had to make the decision to let him go. My father had suffered a stroke due to an aneurysm burst in his brain. Following the years after, I had a stroke, a small stroke that is considered a TIA. The doctor found a small aneurysm in the back of my brain. As I got older, I tried to brush past my health problems. Unfortunately, they had only gotten worse. As the aneurysm grew, my physical, social, and well-being have changed. I have partnered with two different organizations, the Brain Injury Association, as well as the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, which is the nation's premier nonprofit that solely dedicates to awareness and support for those in need. March 18 is the Brain Aneurysm Conference. March 18 is my father’s birthday and if I can raise enough money, I can get a seat at the conference and speak not only on my medical health but for my father. Money donated will be used to not only help the foundation but to also help me with the payments of surgery to remove my aneurysm. The funny thing about aneurysms is once you have one, you can get another. I want to live a happy and healthy life and with little to no insurance, it seems that every day it’s getting harder and harder for me and I just wanna make my dad proud. So I partnered with these organizations so they could recognize me and hopefully help me with my surgery. In 2023, I was diagnosed with a 2 cm aneurysm, the only thing they could do was monitor it. Life went on and things occurred for the worst due to the loss of my health insurance and my trimonthly doctor visits for MRIs and CT scans. This year, my aneurysm has now increased to 4 cm in the back of my brain. This calls for an immediate coil to be placed to remove it. I have never asked for any help in my life. I am only trying to do what’s positive and I am trying to do what’s best for me and what I could do to make my dad proud. January 24, I’ll be running a 5K as a representative of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation. I’m doing this not for them but for myself to prove that I can do it. Just because you have a disability people cannot see, doesn’t mean that it’s not there. But like all problems, they can be fixed. In order for me to live a happy and healthy life, I do need the surgery. Any donation can go the distance. You’re not just helping me, you’ll be helping thousands of others who can’t afford the help that they need. Each year, 30,000 people in the United States alone suffer from a ruptured brain aneurysm. 50% of those ruptured brain aneurysms are fatal, and 60% of ruptured aneurysms can cause permanent neurological damage. I want to do this for myself and to put my health first. I’ve never made a GoFundMe in my life and I’ve never asked for help in my life, but I’d like to think that asking for help when you need it is the first step in fixing a problem.