My name is Marily O’Connor and I am writing to you about a very special person in my life, my daughter, Kerry O’Connor.

Kerry needs your help. After 27 years as an insulin dependent diabetic, she is suffering from one of the most life-threatening complications of the disease, hypoglycemic unawareness. In non-medical terms, this means that the disease has progressed to the point that her body does not register the fact that her blood sugar levels are dropping. Some episodes have been so severe that she has had to be hospitalized until the blood sugars return to within the normal range. While she has experienced other complications as well, most notably loss of vision in her left eye and severe gastro paresis (nerve damage to her digestive tract), the hypoglycemia has forced her to give up many of the things in her life that she loves. She can no longer work as a nurse or even be left alone. At times, just ordinary tasks, such as folding laundry, can cause her blood sugars to plummet.

There is a bright note, however. Kerry has just been accepted as a pancreas transplant candidate at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, one of the few places that performs “pancreas only” transplants. In addition, it is well equipped to handle the range of Kerry’s medical complications that add to the difficulty of this surgery. The down side to this choice is the distance and length of stay that will be required in both the pre- and post-transplant phases. This is where your support comes in. While Kerry and her husband, Bill, have good medical coverage, it does not cover all of the expenses for Kerry’s immunosuppressant medications necessary for the rest of her life, transportation or lodging that Kerry will need during the first post-transplant year.