When you meet my friend Peggy, you are captivated by her brilliant smile, sense of optimism, and good cheer. What you don’t see behind that smile are the years of stress and high costs incurred caring for her son, Taylor, who has a history of complicated medical issues, including epilepsy. Despite those challenges, Peggy always found a way to provide for both of them -- until now.

Peggy was just hit with a diagnosis of endometrial cancer that has metastasized, which will make it impossible to provide basic living costs for herself and Taylor during the four months she now has to go through for her chemo regimen.

In mid-life, Peggy adopted a son at birth because she wanted to be a mom and expected to live many years to enjoy him, given the trends in her family tree. Over the past fifteen years, Taylor’s various medical issues required her to work at home in order for her to be available to him. To manage that, she turned to teaching graduate students online for three universities.

With that online teaching, Peggy made sufficient income to support herself and Taylor, covering rent, household expenses, car payments, and medical co-pays for both of them.

Now, because of the side effects of chemo, she will only be able to carry about half of her usual teaching load. That means for the next four months she will not be able to meet half of what she usually covers in expenses. She has no financial reserves since they have been spent over the years on medical expenses. (Thankfully, Taylor is doing much better. He is a young adult and able to work part time, but his income is not sufficient to cover their larger needs.)

To help her get through this challenging, scary, and stressful time, I am sponsoring a GoFundMe campaign to cover her rent and other expenses that would usually be covered by her full load of teaching.

My Request

Peggy’s resilience, courage, and grit, her extraordinary devotion to her son, and her commitment to her students make her a very, very special person.

Please make as generous a donation as you can. Also, please pass this link on to others who can help. The more people who know Peggy’s story, the more likely her financial goal will be reached.

Thank you.