Family and friends of Wally MacMillan are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with a Stem Cell Transplant. Wally has chosen to fundraise with Help Hope Live in part because donations are tax deductible for contributors and will only be used to cover medical and related expenses.
Help Wally enjoy a few more years of retirement after all his years of working and helping others.
Wally is a 71-year-old single man who retired from a 43 career in architecture at the end of 2019. He retired from the city to rural Napa Valley and lives in senior manufactured home park in Calistoga, CA. The COVID Pandemic began in March of 2020, just three months after he retired. He sheltered at his home in Northern California until the pandemic ended in May of 2023. During this time Wally took up his old passion of watercolor painting, starting an online art business and exhibiting at local shows. Additionally, he set up and became the first president of a Social Club at the 55-plus manufactured home community in which he lives and organized monthly wine tasting events at various wineries for the local LGBTQ community.
Approximately 1-1/2 years later in the fall of 2024 Wally was diagnosed with an inherited blood cancer called MDS. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy in preparation for a future stem cell transplant at UCSF to hopefully cure the disease and give him a few more years to enjoy the retirement he worked for his entire life.
Wally is a true survivor, and he has consistently volunteered and supported the communities in which he has lived. He has successfully fought HIV for forty years. He continued to work in architecture the entire time while fighting the disease. He has also helped others cope with HIV by co-founding an HIV healing support group program with three friends in San Francisco. The program included monthly meetings of fifty or more people which began with meditation followed by special speakers and discussion. He organized multiple support groups to help others maneuver through their lives with HIV. In addition, Wally participated in multiple HIV medical research projects to further research into the disease. He also participated in public protests and activism to draw attention to the need for federal government research and support for people living with HIV.
Until now Wally has been blessed with reasonably good health. It is a surprise to be diagnosed with this inherited blood cancer. Treatment with chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant is extremely expensive. It would be a financial challenge for anyone. And as we know, our healthcare and health insurance systems do not provide all the financial assistance necessary for critical illness. He will require financial assistance for treatment, medications, copays, housing, meals, housekeeping, transportation, 24/7 caregivers for three or more months at home, and other support during the recovery process.
You can help Wally to have a few more years to spend with his family and friends, paint watercolors and enjoy the sunset years of his life by making a tax-deductible donation to the Help Hope Live non-profit fundraising organization in Wally’s name.
