Bring Gina Back Home

Hello, my name is Silva and I'm fundraising for my sister Gina Blackman/Bond who suffered a heart attack and subsequent stroke, while overseas.

Gina and her husband Mahendra Blackman were on a long-planned dream; a cruise up the coast of Canada and Alaska to the Inland Passage when she had her heart attack. She is currently being treated in a hospital in Alaska. We need your help to bring Gina home to Australia.

As you may be aware, medical costs in the USA are astronomical, and we estimate the cost alone of getting her back home could be at least $85,000. Overall we may be looking at a million dollars! The insurance company has confirmed that they will not cover her medical expenses, as the heart attack was related to a pre-existing condition.

Mahendra and Jonathon, her son, are with her day and night and the love and support from friends and family has been pouring in from all over the world.

Gina's condition is still critical. She herself is working as hard as she can trying to relearn how to speak and swallow and regain the use of the right side of her body. It'll take time and dedication. We are all longing for her to be able to return home to the Northern Rivers of NSW, where the support can be more hands-on and the Australian health service can help with the care she'll need in her journey back to health.

So right now our urgent and immediate goal is to bring her home to her loving family and friends. As Mahendra, an old-age pensioner and Vietnam veteran, is looking at having to either sell or mortgage the family home to pay for all this, we are asking for your help. Any donation, big or small, would be gratefully received.

Please, if you can't contribute financially, we ask that you share the campaign widely amongst your connections.

Gina has been a bright beam of light in our lives and made a difference for so many of us. Please help us to ensure her light keeps on shining out her love into this world.

If you are able to help, Gina, Mahendra; and their loving family and friends will be so very grateful.