To the many friends and family of Margaret & Nick,

The past 6 months have been the most trying times in their lives. They have been through a lot as a couple, but never so much, in such a short period of time. In late September, Nick contracted Legionnaires' disease. Legionnaires' disease is an infection from “bacteria in water” which caused Nick's body to start going septic, and he was also diagnosed with pneumonia. His first trip to the hospital was September 17. Then, in the beginning of October, on the very day Nick was told by the doctor he was doing much better and he would be able to return to work soon, Margaret found out she had thyroid cancer. Nick was finally able to return to work. He worked five days, then on October 12, while Nick was driving home from work, he had a heart attack. Nick then had emergency surgery to put a stent in his heart that day. He had to go back two weeks later to have two more stents placed in it. Nick continues to work with his cardiac doctor to assess the condition of his heart. Altogether, in less than a month, they had three major life-changing illnesses.

Margaret is still fighting thyroid cancer. She had her thyroid removed on December 13. When the surgery was done, they discovered it had spread to the lymph nodes in her neck as well. She is currently being treated to kill off the remaining cancerous thyroid cells in her body. She still has to do a round of radioactive iodine that will be about two weeks of quarantining, so as not to spread the radioactivity. This is a process that usually needs to be repeated a few times yearly. Once the radiation is over, she will hopefully be in a state of remission, but will need to be tested and/or treated periodically for the rest of her life to ensure she stays healthy and cancer-free.

Needless to say, it has placed unexpected financial and mental burdens on the two of them. They now have many unexpected medical bills, due to both of them having a total of 5 hospital stays between them, in a matter of the last 6 months. Nick has missed 2 months of work due to the illnesses/events. Margaret has missed just over 6 weeks. This does not include the various days taken off for appointments and testing. The future holds numerous more appointments and instances of missed work and maybe hospital stays.

They go out of their way to be good people and support others in any way they can. They both are kind, caring, hardworking individuals who always try to help a friend or family member in need. Any donations will go towards their medical expenses first and foremost. Anything else would go to help with the day-to-day expenses while they navigate this journey. If unable to donate, just sharing this will go a long way to spreading the word and helping them through their time of need.