Hello, my name is Pamela Norman. I appreciate you taking the time to hear my daughter’s story.

On December 22, 2023, my Daughter Candace Darling Blakney was rushed to the emergency room with unbearable pain. After all the testing, they found 4 masses in her body: one in the kidney, liver, pancreas, and lung. After all the biopsies confirmed, she is suffering from Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis, also known as Wegener’s Disease. This is a very rare autoimmune disease that attacks the blood vessels. It’s essentially shut down the organs, and it’s not normally spread past kidneys and lungs, but it has advanced to her liver and pancreas also. Without treatment, the life expectancy for this disease is one year.

She spent a month in the hospital in July 2024, and they finally realized how aggressive her case is and started her on chemo. They were treating it like cancer as it attacks her blood and cells also. She has lost the ability to walk more than 20 feet or so without crippling pain. She can stand no more than 5 to 10 minutes. She can no longer drive her car. She has a hospital bed at home now.

We were notified this morning. Chemo is not working. She has had six infusions, and chemo usually puts someone with this disease in remission. For remission, her blood level for the disease needs to be between 0 to 10. This morning we found out hers has gone from 25 to 46, and now she is at 62. This disease has taken over 62% of my daughter’s body. The next step is blood transfusions, which her insurance has denied. It is in the appeals process. She has been unable to work for over a year now, and I believe it is time to finally ask for help.

My main goal is to take her to be evaluated at the Mayo Clinic, which does not take her insurance. This would be very expensive, and it’s funds we alone cannot achieve. I have to believe there is a doctor out there that can help her. Myself, her husband, and kids are doing everything we can for her. She has three beautiful children and two beautiful grandbabies that need so many more years with her. It breaks my heart to see her in so much pain every day, 24/7. She is 52 and should be having the time of her life. The only time she can leave the house is for a doctor or hospital stay. She cannot be around anyone who is sick as she can’t fight infection the same way healthy people can.

If you could donate to her cause, it would mean the world to her and our family. If you are unable to donate, prayers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading. Please share.