Theano's Medical Fund
Donation protected
This is our beautiful friend Theano. If you've met her, you know just how warm, kind and generous she is.
Theano is fighting for her life right now.
She's been diagnosed with Myelofibrosis, a serious bone marrow disorder. It's a cancer that affects the blood's production of cells and she needs a bone marrow transplant. Without this transplant, she will have less than three years to live.
We're asking for your help in raising $15,000. Your donation will help offset medical bills and rent during recovery from a bone marrow transplant that will put her out of commission for 6-8 months.
Theano has been in our life for four years now. During that time, my wife Christina and I have come to know and love her as a dear friend. We travel occasionally, often forced to leave behind our two terriers, who are the center of our universe. Each time we needed her, Theano stepped in. It makes all the difference in the world knowing that she's there while we're away.
We met Theano through mutual friends, for whom she spent years with providing care and love to their daughter. Several families share that story - she has cared for ten children in the past fifteen years.
I know every single one of those families would agree, she has many endearing qualities. She's kind, generous, thoughtful, caring, funny, hardworking and resilient, to name a few.
She is also very independent. As a single woman, who's closest family is thousands of miles away in Brazil, she has to be.
In September 2013, Theano started feeling unwell. She became extremely fatigued with constant pain in her muscles and bones. This caused sleepless nights and the fatigue began impacting her performance at work.
After visiting her physician, she was told nothing was wrong. But as the sleepless nights became more frequent, and the pain got worse, it became impossible to keep up around the office.
That original misdiagnosis has proven to be costly.
In April 2014 Theano lost her job. And she lost the health insurance provided by her employer.
Her condition deteriorated that spring and summer. The pain became increasingly hard to manage. Pain medicine was completely ineffective. Sleepless nights became the norm.
She did what she could to earn a living, babysitting as much as her body could take. To stay on top of bills, she also took additional temp work, at times laboring through 14-hour work days between both jobs.
Fast forward to 2015; after seeing several doctors, Theano was finally accurately diagnosed with Myelofibrosis.
After two more years of experimental treatments, five biopsies, numerous CT scans, countless MRIs and blood tests, doctors concluded her only hope was a bone marrow transplant.
Finding a match for a bone marrow donor is like finding a needle in 10,000 haystacks. Despite the odds, they have found a match.
And despite a very difficult road ahead, she now has hope.
But Theano has exhausted her savings on health care and treatment just to reach this point. She'll be hospitalized for a month after the transplant, then return home in need of 24 hour live-in care for up to three months. Realistically it will be at least nine months before she can work to support herself again.
It's extremely hard to imagine dealing with these setbacks alone, and being so far away from family, with your savings completely wiped out by expensive medical fees.
Anyone who's had a loved one affected by cancer can attest to the emotional pain and stress and significant expense associated with treatment.
We are looking to raise $15,000 that will provide the home care during recovery period and cover rent during the time she is recovering.
Please help if you can. If you can't that's ok, please pass this along to anyone you know that may be able to.
Many thanks for taking the time to listen.
Sincerely,
Jason & Christina Cromer
“We rise by lifting others.”
–Robert Ingersoll
.
Theano is fighting for her life right now.
She's been diagnosed with Myelofibrosis, a serious bone marrow disorder. It's a cancer that affects the blood's production of cells and she needs a bone marrow transplant. Without this transplant, she will have less than three years to live.
We're asking for your help in raising $15,000. Your donation will help offset medical bills and rent during recovery from a bone marrow transplant that will put her out of commission for 6-8 months.
Theano has been in our life for four years now. During that time, my wife Christina and I have come to know and love her as a dear friend. We travel occasionally, often forced to leave behind our two terriers, who are the center of our universe. Each time we needed her, Theano stepped in. It makes all the difference in the world knowing that she's there while we're away.
We met Theano through mutual friends, for whom she spent years with providing care and love to their daughter. Several families share that story - she has cared for ten children in the past fifteen years.
I know every single one of those families would agree, she has many endearing qualities. She's kind, generous, thoughtful, caring, funny, hardworking and resilient, to name a few.
She is also very independent. As a single woman, who's closest family is thousands of miles away in Brazil, she has to be.
In September 2013, Theano started feeling unwell. She became extremely fatigued with constant pain in her muscles and bones. This caused sleepless nights and the fatigue began impacting her performance at work.
After visiting her physician, she was told nothing was wrong. But as the sleepless nights became more frequent, and the pain got worse, it became impossible to keep up around the office.
That original misdiagnosis has proven to be costly.
In April 2014 Theano lost her job. And she lost the health insurance provided by her employer.
Her condition deteriorated that spring and summer. The pain became increasingly hard to manage. Pain medicine was completely ineffective. Sleepless nights became the norm.
She did what she could to earn a living, babysitting as much as her body could take. To stay on top of bills, she also took additional temp work, at times laboring through 14-hour work days between both jobs.
Fast forward to 2015; after seeing several doctors, Theano was finally accurately diagnosed with Myelofibrosis.
After two more years of experimental treatments, five biopsies, numerous CT scans, countless MRIs and blood tests, doctors concluded her only hope was a bone marrow transplant.
Finding a match for a bone marrow donor is like finding a needle in 10,000 haystacks. Despite the odds, they have found a match.
And despite a very difficult road ahead, she now has hope.
But Theano has exhausted her savings on health care and treatment just to reach this point. She'll be hospitalized for a month after the transplant, then return home in need of 24 hour live-in care for up to three months. Realistically it will be at least nine months before she can work to support herself again.
It's extremely hard to imagine dealing with these setbacks alone, and being so far away from family, with your savings completely wiped out by expensive medical fees.
Anyone who's had a loved one affected by cancer can attest to the emotional pain and stress and significant expense associated with treatment.
We are looking to raise $15,000 that will provide the home care during recovery period and cover rent during the time she is recovering.
Please help if you can. If you can't that's ok, please pass this along to anyone you know that may be able to.
Many thanks for taking the time to listen.
Sincerely,
Jason & Christina Cromer
“We rise by lifting others.”
–Robert Ingersoll
.
Organizer and beneficiary
Christina Brannon Cromer
Organizer
San Diego, CA
Theano Mouratidis
Beneficiary