My dear friend, Laura Brancato, has a chronic and debilitating condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).  A few years ago, Laura was in an auto accident and a truck landed on her foot.  Instead of making a full recovery, she developed CRPS--a condition where her brain thinks the foot is still injured.   Every day, Laura experiences pain in her foot and leg, and also sometimes in other parts of her body, that ranges anywhere from intense to almost unbearable.  Even amputation of the limb would not help the pain.   She spends her days on a strict medical treatment and medication schedule that keeps the pain under control enough for her to function--barely.   Laura has to keep her leg propped up almost around the clock because if she puts it down for any extended length of time it swells and begins to hurt unbearably.  She can drive within just a couple of miles of her house to get groceries, involve herself in her church organization, and go to medical appointments (which occur many times each week!).   Laura lives alone and has no healthy relatives nearby.  She lives on Medicare and her medical costs cause her to have to put everything on a credit card, paying only minimum payments each month to show good faith.  While Laura does not wish to be in debt, she really has no choice.

As if her problems weren't already difficult enough, a teenager without a driver's license was driving a few months ago and crashed into Laura's car, totaling it.  She got enough insurance money to buy an older replacement car.  She was as careful as she could be to make sure and have an auto mechanic look the car over before purchasing it, but that car turned out to be a money pit.  It is constantly breaking down, and she has had to put lots of money she doesn't have into fixing it.  It has recently broken down again, and this time she has been told it's not worth fixing because the repairs will be thousands of dollars--more than the car is worth.

My family and I are hoping to raise a few thousand dollars to buy Laura a used automobile that will hopefully run well for years to come!  We will basically see how much we can raise and go from there.   We've been looking, and think $5000-$8000 would get her a car that would last a few years at least.  The more money we raise, the newer the car and the longer it will last her!

Please donate anything you can give to The Laura Branc-Automobile Fund!!!  Please help our friend!!!  Thank you!!!