Help Patrick Bruck & Family Survive Disability, Meds, Food & Bills

My name is Patrick Bruck. I’m 37 years old, disabled, and living with severe chronic pain from scoliosis and degenerative spinal conditions. I also live with long term mental health struggles. My health has worsened over time, and life has become a constant fight to stay functional, stay housed, and stay alive with dignity.

This fundraiser is for my household, because we are living on the edge with no safety net.

I live in an apartment with my dad, Albert. He’s 81, a disabled veteran, and he has late stage COPD and congestive heart failure. I help care for my dad when he needs it alongside my sister who lives with her husband. Dad and I also live with two roommates, James and Billy, and we survive as a unit. Everyone is stretched. There is no extra money in this apartment. When one thing hits, it hits all of us.

A big reason our lives have been so fragile for so long is that we never got a chance to truly recover from what we lost. My mom, Betsy, died of metastatic lung cancer in 2007. After she died, my dad’s health and stability declined, and I became the one trying to hold things together while my own mental health and physical pain worsened.

Years later, we were also forced from our old home after a CSX train derailment evacuation, and the water and mold damage that followed made the house unlivable. The mortgage dad had was underwater and refused to negotiate.

We had to leave our lives behind.

We rebuilt what we could, but we never had the money or the strength to build a real foundation.

Right now, we are in an emergency. Our bank account is overdrawn by $246. We have no food. I’m out of pain medication and cannot afford the copays and costs to refill it. Bills keep coming, and there is no money coming in for weeks. This is not a temporary bump in the road. This is what disability and poverty look like when you don’t have savings or a system that catches you.

If something happens to my dad, we will not be able to keep up with rent here. That fear sits behind everything.

Donations to this fundraiser go directly toward survival needs:

• Food

• Medication and medical costs

• Transportation to appointments

• Essential bills so we can stay housed and keep going

If you can donate, thank you. If you can’t, sharing this page helps more than you know. I hate having to ask, but we are out of options and we need help.

With deep gratitude,

Patrick Bruck