Help Nicole Darden Creston, Your Local ATC Host

For more than 10 years Nicole Darden Creston has been there for you through central Florida’s biggest news events, as host of Morning Edition and All Things Considered for WMFE, the region’s flagship NPR station.  

 

With poise and grace, Creston has talked you through a historic pandemic and unprecedented presidential election in 2020. She also has narrated radio coverage of hurricanes, floods and much else, including the Pulse mass shooting in 2016, at the time the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

 

You know her as Nicole Darden Creston. But to us, her former WMFE colleagues, she is Nikki, a dear friend who has been there through our own dark times. Now she needs our help.

 

Nikki suffers from an auto-immune disorder that has left her vulnerable to a multitude of health problems, the latest one called SIBO or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. SIBO is a rare condition where bad bacteria in the digestive tract process food before the body itself can, denying the body of nutrients and fuel and instead generating waste products that can cause nonstop gastrointestinal distress and pain.

 

For Nikki, the condition has led to a grueling and expensive battle against malnutrition that has left her severely debilitated. If you are wondering why you have not heard her for a while on the radio, this is why.

 

The financial strain the illness has caused represents only the beginning of the challenges ahead of Nikki, but it is where we can help.

 

Nikki has been dealing with this problem since January and has tried a few treatments that did not work. Right now she is on a medical liquid diet called the Elemental Diet, which is “food” at its already-digested basics. The diet consists of bags of liquid that cost $125 a pop, before taxes and shipping. Each bag lasts about four days, and when she runs out of money and is forced to subsist on real food, it makes her even more sick and causes her to drop weight.

 

Nikki is an important part of the community because of her work in radio. She also is an accomplished actor and well-known in the local arts community. The way she has put mission as priority and worked while ill shows her courageous spirit. Her wonderful partner Julian Bond and her cute pups have been helping her through this time. We are asking that you give what you can to assist them through the financial burden of this illness.

 

Many thanks for your consideration,

 

Amy Green and Crystal Chavez