Tammy Smith has been living with a rare disease called Langerhans cell histiocytosis for over 20 years, and there is no cure. After years of progression, her only hope for survival is a double lung transplant. Tammy was listed for transplant in the beginning of 2017 and now she needs our help.
Tammy grew up in Berwick, Pennsylvania, graduated from Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech. High School, and married her sweetheart, Joe. She worked as a machinist until they started a family. She was a stay-at-home homeschooling mother of four children: Nichole, Kristen, Danyell, and Joey. She worked hard to make sure her family had a happy and healthy home. When her youngest reached high school, Tammy decided to start working as a nurse’s aide, and then completed nursing school.
You may know Tammy from her time as a nurse at Bonham Nursing & Rehabilitation Center where she was a loving and compassionate nurse, touching hearts and lives of residents, family, and staff. Unfortunately, she could no longer continue to work and had to leave her position due to not being able to breathe. My mother has always been friendly and nurturing, she was “mom” to every friend we brought home. She would love nothing more than to be able to run around with her two young grandsons, or to return to her nursing job which brought her so much joy.
A transplant will be life-saving, but it is also financially draining. Even with insurance, we are facing very high expenses including traveling back and forth to Temple University Hospital, post-transplant medications costing $1,200 a month, co-pays and various other medical bills.
To help with the financial burden of Tammy’s uninsured expenses, a fundraising campaign in her honor has been established with Help Hope Live, 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 to the fullest extent of the law, are held by Help Hope Live in the Mid-Atlantic Lung Transplant Fund, and are administered by Help Hope Live for transplant-related expenses only. Please consider a contribution.
For credit card contributions, please select the “Donate Now” button on this page or call 800.642.8399. Or:
Make checks payable to:
Help Hope Live
Note in memo section
In honor of Tammy Smith
Please send to:
Help Hope Live
2 Radnor Corporate Center
100 Matsonford Road, Suite 100
Radnor, PA 19087
Thank you for your prayers, support, and generosity. Keep watching this campaign page because we will be planning some fundraising events and posting updates regularly!
Gratefully,
Nichole Gallo, Tammy’s daughter
570-854-7518
