Joseph Zambri, my husband of six years, is suffering from end stage renal failure and desperately needs a kidney transplant. This poses a great financial challenge that we are unable to meet without your help.
Joseph and I live in the Tri-Cities of Northeast Tennessee. After high school, Joseph trained as an electrician and was proud of the work he did in that field for many years. Once he got sick, however, he was unable to continue working. Never one to be idle, he filled his time spreading the voice of Christianity in the world by assembling Bibles, Christian tracts and musical instruments for sending overseas. A member of Chinquapin Grove Baptist Church, Joseph’s faith is central to his life and has helped him stay strong through his medical crisis.
Since receiving his diagnosis of kidney disease in 2013, Joseph has endured three times a week dialysis treatments. The doctors at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville agree that Joseph is a good candidate for a kidney transplant and that undergoing the procedure is far preferable to years of dialysis. Joseph looks forward to the surgery which will allow him to once again pursue his hobbies of hiking, fishing, and volunteering.
Vanderbilt is a six hour drive for us and the bills to travel there and back are piling up. Joseph will need to make many pre-transplant visits and he and I will need to stay in Nashville for a short period of time after the transplant. In addition, the life-long anti-rejection medications that he will need to take to make sure his body accepts the new kidney are very expensive. Though Josepth has Medicare coverage, his out-of-pocket expenses are still overwhelming.
To help with the financial burden of Joseph’s uninsured expenses, a fundraising campaign in his honor has been established with HelpHOPELive, a trusted nonprofit organization that has been providing community-based fundraising guidance to patients and their families for more than 30 years. All donations are tax-deductible, are held by HelpHOPELive in the South-Atlantic Kidney Transplant Fund, and are administered by HelpHOPELive for transplant-related expenses only. Please consider a contribution.
Thank you for your prayers and support,
Lillian Zambri
423-342-5112
