Help benson to smile again.
Spende geschützt
My name is Markhollan Swientek, I am the best friend and business partner of Benson Roberts. Many of you know him and his history, many of you will be meeting him here for the first time. Benson is a Fashion Designer from Detroit who is currently living in Austin, TX. I met him and became close friends with him nearly 10 years ago.
I met him at an open call for Models. He was in the process of Designing a new collection of men's suits. I remember meeting him so vividly. He was smart, funny, and so full of life. Imagine my shock when I discovered that he actually was profoundly ill and being challenged by a lung injury. At that time the diagnosis was Pulmonary Fibrosis. He had been given 2 years to live. I remember wondering how someone so sick could be so full of life and dreams. I also remember wondering why he was bothering to work. Through getting to know him I came to understand that he wanted to give as much as possible of himself and his creativity as his time left would allow him to. I discovered that his “phones calls in his office” were actually him connected to a nebulizer which he used to allow him to breathe and function. I also discovered that he had to take massive doses of Prednisone, a steroid, to function at all. I eventually moved in with him to help him as his condition became worse. He was suffering some major side effects due to the Prednisone and had to spend long periods of time weening from it. When he wasn't able to take his medication he would just sit in a chair on his nebulizer. For some one so active, it was like torture. To occupy his mind and use his creativity he taught himself to use Photoshop. We bought him a small camera and he began to take pictures on the days that he felt well enough to leave the house with just a medium dose of steroids.
Eventually when 2 years had passed and he was no better or no worse he began to research his condition to take information to his doctors and he was eventually diagnosed with Reactive Airway Dysfunction Syndrome. This is the same condition that rescue workers at Ground Zero were ill with. Most people cleared within a year or two others not at all. He resigned himself to life with less than 40% of his lung capacity. The camera became his new creative outlet. He retired his label; that was the hardest thing in the world for him to do. He had costumed a world wide campaign for Swarovski Crystals and his phone was ringing off the hook. He sadly declined each offer knowing that his lungs couldn't handle the work. The depression only lifted when he and I began a project that involved driving over 300,000 miles around the US, taking pictures for a calendar that became our sole source of income. I used to lay awake at night in the hotels that we stayed in praying that his frail health would allow him to wake up in the morning.
It is hard to nutshell all of those years. It was always touch and go with Benson seeing the inside of Hospitals in more states than most people visit in a lifetime. I am happy to say that after nearly 8 years on Prednisone with lung capacity so bad that his Federal Impairment rating was 63% (higher then a paraplegic) his lungs finally cleared. The celebration was short lived as all of the damage to his body from the years of a drug with such serious side effects became known. He was left with a destroyed immune system, destroyed adrenal system, damaged kidneys, frail bones and soft muscle tissue and tendons just to name a few issues. He has to be so careful to not injure himself or catch a simple cold which always became pneumonia in his healing lungs. For the past 2 years he has been in the hospital so often due to increasingly bad infections in his skin. Simple things that you and I would never be effected by could kill him.
Today he works harder than he should to try to pay down his old medical bills and save money for taking care of some of the many damaged parts of his body. He spent 9 of 12 months dealing with infections last year. We nearly bankrupted our business to get the help that he so needed to manage these infections and discover how to stop them from happening. Honestly, I fear that if he keeps working so hard to keep from asking for help he will do himself in. The Prednisone caused so much calcium loss and damage to his bones that he lost 10 teeth and has a hard time chewing. 4 months ago one of his front teeth broke. Since then he barely leaves the house or his work room. His vibrant smile rarely surfaces do to shame over his broken tooth/teeth. It is for his teeth that I am starting this campaign.
If we raise the $15,000 dollars Benson can have his smile back. He will have to have the work done in Mexico because implants in the US would cost him nearly $100K. Please do what you can to help this amazing human regain some of his lost dignity and be able to eat without the fear of choking. We have looked into dentures which would be less expensive; his tendancy to get infections keeps that option off the table.
He has fought with me for months about starting this campaign. He doesn't want charity, although he has often given money to help others in need. He is generous with his time, creativity, knowledge and finances. Please be one of the people who gives back to this man who has given so much.
I met him at an open call for Models. He was in the process of Designing a new collection of men's suits. I remember meeting him so vividly. He was smart, funny, and so full of life. Imagine my shock when I discovered that he actually was profoundly ill and being challenged by a lung injury. At that time the diagnosis was Pulmonary Fibrosis. He had been given 2 years to live. I remember wondering how someone so sick could be so full of life and dreams. I also remember wondering why he was bothering to work. Through getting to know him I came to understand that he wanted to give as much as possible of himself and his creativity as his time left would allow him to. I discovered that his “phones calls in his office” were actually him connected to a nebulizer which he used to allow him to breathe and function. I also discovered that he had to take massive doses of Prednisone, a steroid, to function at all. I eventually moved in with him to help him as his condition became worse. He was suffering some major side effects due to the Prednisone and had to spend long periods of time weening from it. When he wasn't able to take his medication he would just sit in a chair on his nebulizer. For some one so active, it was like torture. To occupy his mind and use his creativity he taught himself to use Photoshop. We bought him a small camera and he began to take pictures on the days that he felt well enough to leave the house with just a medium dose of steroids.
Eventually when 2 years had passed and he was no better or no worse he began to research his condition to take information to his doctors and he was eventually diagnosed with Reactive Airway Dysfunction Syndrome. This is the same condition that rescue workers at Ground Zero were ill with. Most people cleared within a year or two others not at all. He resigned himself to life with less than 40% of his lung capacity. The camera became his new creative outlet. He retired his label; that was the hardest thing in the world for him to do. He had costumed a world wide campaign for Swarovski Crystals and his phone was ringing off the hook. He sadly declined each offer knowing that his lungs couldn't handle the work. The depression only lifted when he and I began a project that involved driving over 300,000 miles around the US, taking pictures for a calendar that became our sole source of income. I used to lay awake at night in the hotels that we stayed in praying that his frail health would allow him to wake up in the morning.
It is hard to nutshell all of those years. It was always touch and go with Benson seeing the inside of Hospitals in more states than most people visit in a lifetime. I am happy to say that after nearly 8 years on Prednisone with lung capacity so bad that his Federal Impairment rating was 63% (higher then a paraplegic) his lungs finally cleared. The celebration was short lived as all of the damage to his body from the years of a drug with such serious side effects became known. He was left with a destroyed immune system, destroyed adrenal system, damaged kidneys, frail bones and soft muscle tissue and tendons just to name a few issues. He has to be so careful to not injure himself or catch a simple cold which always became pneumonia in his healing lungs. For the past 2 years he has been in the hospital so often due to increasingly bad infections in his skin. Simple things that you and I would never be effected by could kill him.
Today he works harder than he should to try to pay down his old medical bills and save money for taking care of some of the many damaged parts of his body. He spent 9 of 12 months dealing with infections last year. We nearly bankrupted our business to get the help that he so needed to manage these infections and discover how to stop them from happening. Honestly, I fear that if he keeps working so hard to keep from asking for help he will do himself in. The Prednisone caused so much calcium loss and damage to his bones that he lost 10 teeth and has a hard time chewing. 4 months ago one of his front teeth broke. Since then he barely leaves the house or his work room. His vibrant smile rarely surfaces do to shame over his broken tooth/teeth. It is for his teeth that I am starting this campaign.
If we raise the $15,000 dollars Benson can have his smile back. He will have to have the work done in Mexico because implants in the US would cost him nearly $100K. Please do what you can to help this amazing human regain some of his lost dignity and be able to eat without the fear of choking. We have looked into dentures which would be less expensive; his tendancy to get infections keeps that option off the table.
He has fought with me for months about starting this campaign. He doesn't want charity, although he has often given money to help others in need. He is generous with his time, creativity, knowledge and finances. Please be one of the people who gives back to this man who has given so much.
Organisator
Markhollan Swientek
Organisator
Austin, TX