Give a smile and health back

After so many of you asking me to start a gofundme, here I reluctantly am. I want to start by saying thank you for all the love and support of my video, and say that me not wanting to make this in no way reflects a poor opinion of fundraising. It’s actually quite the opposite, as we have been fortunate enough to have found support through this fundraising website in the past. In previous years, these requests were for my daughter, Emmri, though. It was much easier to ask for help when it was for her, because my pride has and always will come second to what my children need, and Emmri not only needed but deserved any shred of hope, help, and kindness she could get. The things we fundraised for in the past were things to improve her quality of life while she was battling a terminal illness on hospice, so it was vital. Asking for help for myself is much different, and much more difficult.

For those who know us and know our story, you’ve likely been around for awhile and for that I want to thank you. For those who are new here, I will give a brief introduction of myself and our story but you can find so much more on my tiktok at ChelseyBanker. My name is chelsey and I am a 31 year old mother to two children. One who is 5 years old, and another who turned 11 in 2021 and passed away February of 2022 after a long and hard battle with lifelong disabilities. My daughter, Emmri, is loved world wide and procured over a million followers on tiktok with her story, strength, and inspiration. She was born severely disabled, and I was a teen mom to her. Her father passed away when she was an infant, leaving it just her and I to navigate a world that wasn’t set up for a young mom and special needs child, but we did it! We started quite literally at the bottom, as I was homeless when I was pregnant with her, and before she passed away we finally had made our way to comfortable life.

During the last two years of her battle, she was placed on hospice as her body and condition drastically declined. As you can imagine, it was alot on us as a family unit and I was all hands on deck, at all times. Because of this, my own health was placed on the back burner. Actually, for most her life this was the case because she required multiple specialist appointments a month, medical intervention and 24/7 around the clock care as she was a spastic quadriplegic who was non-verbal. Caring for her, and being a mom to her and her brother is my biggest blessing and has given me so much joy. She changed my life, they both have, and caring for them both no matter how challenging at times will always be one of my favorite blessings. During this time, I was hyper focused on my daughter and her health, totally throwing my own to the side, and I am now paying the price of that. My mental health was not in good standing as you can imagine, and things like dental cleanings or even basic check ups were neglected for myself. I have battled autoimmune issues for over 10 years now, but due to lack of time and resources I was never able to receive treatment and due to all this my teeth are now quite literally crumbling out of my mouth. Fast forward to now, I am needing extensive dental care to not only try and save some of my teeth but also get my health in order. I have had 6 molars pulled in the last two years, leaving no teeth to chew with in the back of my mouth and putting strain on my front incisors and canines. This paired with dry mouth from my autoimmune issues, and it has left me with severe decay.

For the last year we have been saving up, trying to afford the treatment I need and my teeth had drastically continued to worsen during this time, so I finally got in for an appointment to see about options. I had X-rays done and another consultation (I have had many over the years, but never had the funds to actually get the work done so I resorted to just having the infected ones pulled even when they were salvageable due to cost). I left this appointment in tears, because I learned that for the very most basic work done that is a necessity to get rid of the infection in my body, be able to eat comfortably again (I’ve lost over 20 lbs the last two years and am now weighing in at 108lbs), and smile with confidence again it is going to be $18,341.00. Over the last year we have been able to save a little over $7,000 up, which we are so proud of because this is a huge deal for us, coming from poverty not long ago. My husband has a good job now, and makes good wages, but we are still climbing our way out of the debt that living in poverty accumulated. Anyone who has had to borrow from Peter to pay Paul knows this all too well, which is why it is so hard for me to ask for help now because I know that so many people have it so much harder than us, and we are fortunate to have a roof over our heads and food in our fridge. With all of this I want to say, please do not feel obligated to donate or help and please do not feel badly if you can’t. I promise you, we understand all too well and we don’t want anyone to feel mislead or pressured into helping with this, since it is a “cosmetic” procedure (saving some of the teeth to crown and a partial denture). I am only making this for those who requested and wanted to help, and despite the multitude of comments asking me too I still feel guilty for it because there are so many people in this world who need help right now as well.

The last year since my daughter had passed, I’ve really taken a step back and focused on healing for myself and our family. Focused on gratitude, joy, and finding the little sparks of light that life has to offer us. We have found so much healing, so much love, and so much support and we are forever grateful for it. I’m our darkest and hardest times we were still so blessed and have so much to be grateful for. Having my smile and my health back, is the next big thing on my list in our venture to healing for myself, and I am humbly honored that some of you want to contribute to helping make that happen. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. For this, and for all the love and support you have shown our family over the years. You all have already changed our lives and gave us a gift that can never be re-paid, keeping my daughters legacy alive and giving her a platform and voice to spread awareness. Thank you.