Support Beloved Don Drake

My name is Scott Catamas, and I am fund raising for a Beloved member of our Global Peace Tribe: Don Drake. Here is his story:

Hello I'm Don and I need some help with my healing journey. I'm 73 years old and still have a lot to offer as a supportive friend and compassionate mentor to people dealing with the challenges of a world that is becoming increasingly chaotic.

For the last 20 years I have been dealing with moderate to severe Chronic Fatigue and periodic Atrial Fibrillation. The Afib has been under control with meds and only becomes a problem when my fatigue turns into exhaustion. Up until about 7 years ago I was living a low stress life with plenty of help from friends and my business partner of many years. I was able to work part time in our landscape maintenance business and part time facilitating peoples spiritual and emotional growth and healing in group and 1 on 1 sessions.

My low stress life suddenly shifted when a housemate where I was living started to abuse me with false accusations of going into their room and stealing things and eventually was caught contaminating my food. This person had a great social personality, but also had a dark side that I saw from time to time come out focused on other housemates but not at me.

The sudden shift happened when the other housemates moved out and I was alone with this person who then would take their “dark side” out on me. I've always been upfront about my disabilities with housemates in the past so this person knew how to inflict maximum pain. I had spend many years healing my own wounding through 12 step work, seminars, workshops and my own training as a coach/counselor and had developed excellent communication skills but I was no match for a skillful sociopath. My chronic fatigue quickly went from moderate to severe in short order! I wanted to move out but could not afford the rents in San Francisco and needed to stay in the city because my landscape contracts were there. I finally had to let go of my business of 40 years and leave SF, Fortunately I was able to move up to Lake county into a great home where my housemates all had great empathy and communication skills! Unfortunately my chronic fatigue was still quite severe and has not after 4 years gotten much better .

A few months ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer after a medical procedure to relieve a bladder problem. The original biopsy gave me a Gleason score group 2 which is in the middle of high and low risk cancer and doesn't require immediate treatment. I felt somewhat relieved as I knew people who were on “watch and wait” for years

Most recently I had a consult with a radiation oncologist and found out that another test they did on my biopsied material called a “decipher test” and that test revealed that the type of cancer detected was a “high risk” aggressive type of cancer.

Here is my dilemma, my chronic fatigue is so severe that I only have a few hours early in the day to take care of my self (shopping, doctor appointments etc.) and have to spend most of my time stretched out in bed or on a couch. The side effect of most treatments (chemo, radiation) would make it way more difficult to take care of my self so I have to take steps to heal my fatigue/exhaustion as well as alternative means to heal or slow down the cancer.

Here's what your donation will go toward:

Complementary and Alternative therapies to relieve my chronic fatigue and to aid in healing and/or slowing down my cancer and help with my rent so I can keep my current doctors and the excellent traditional care I am receiving at Marin General.

I have Medicare and Medi-Cal for my insurance, so my western medical care and medications are in some cases free in others affordably low cost. I spent many years searching for a cure for chronic fatigue in western medicine with no success. I have tried acupuncture and oriental medicine with some success but ultimately couldn't afford to keep it up since I live on my Social Security as my sole income.

I'm currently living with a friend in a house that is going to be sold after the first of the new year. It is important for me to stay with my medical team in Marin or face having to get new doctors each time I move to a new county. Also the complementary/alternative therapies available in this are are topnotch!

I am currently sharing my skills and services with people in the various spiritual awakening and healing communities to which I belong on a voluntary/ no fee basis ( I do accept donations and gifts if offered). I do this because I love working with people and because of the income requirements to keep my Medi-Cal insurance. Medi-Cal limits income to $ 1,677 per month and that's not enough to live on. Fortunately I can receive donations which are not considered income.

My vision is to give away the body of work that I developed over the years (sound healing, personalized meditation enhancement sound tracks etc.) as a gift and work with small groups and individuals on a no obligation donation basis.

Thank you for reading this and please donate whatever you are able to give to help me get well enough to continue to be of service in this world!

I Love you, Don