Financial Stability for Chronically-Ill Advocate

This is a humble request for financial help for my mother, Cynthia Johnson. As some of you may know, she has been chronically ill since 2009 with ME/CFS. It is a disabling multi-system disease that causes her to suffer daily from significant chronic pain, limited and unpredictable mobility, and post-exertional malaise (PEM) that can leave her flat in bed after physical exertion that most people take for granted. She has been mostly apartment-bound the last few years as a result of being an immunocompromised person during the pandemic, mobility limitations, and car troubles with her 1995 Ford Windstar.

Unfortunately, the financial assistance (social security, SNAP, etc.) my mother receives monthly simply does not fully cover all her basic monthly living expenses (i.e. food, phone, internet, healthcare expenses). She lives so simply and diligently, only spending money on the most necessary expenses, but her limited savings have run out and she does not have any other source of income. And there’s other things she really needs that she hasn’t been able to afford such as: dental care (badly!); other medical expenses/supplements she goes without to save money; dietary choices that would benefit her health; car repairs for her ’95 Windstar (which has a scooter lift she is reliant on).

My mom has been so brave in the face of the misfortune life has handed her. When I was in elementary school, she survived breast cancer while being a single parent. ME/CFS then took away a career that she loved, a significant amount of her mobility and independence, and left her bedridden for almost two years resulting in the foreclosure of our home in 2016. In recent years, despite her major health limitations and the global pandemic, she has managed to stay involved in her community by volunteering on Zoom-based committees and tirelessly advocates for disability justice and ME/CFS research/awareness, as her health allows. I greatly admire her resilience and optimistic spirit.

As for myself, I am currently finishing the last couple quarters of my undergraduate degree while working part-time, and do not make an income that allows me to support my mother. If this fundraiser can provide my mom with financial stability for the near future, it would make a world of difference for both of us: allowing her to focus on her health without over-exerting herself trying to get the bills paid each month, and allowing me to finally finish my degree and advance my career without worrying about my mom’s immediate wellbeing. And if we can raise enough for additional expenses like dental care or car repairs, it would improve her quality of living even further.

I know my mom won’t be around forever and I desperately just want us to be able to enjoy the time we get to spend together without the immediate burden of financial insecurity. In the near future I hope to eventually have a stable-enough income to help supplement my mother’s financial needs myself, but for now, anything you can donate to her would help tremendously. Thank you so much!

-Shane Johnson (Cynthia’s son)