Blessy Garcia

Family and friends, as most of you know I’ve been on dialysis for the past nine years due to Lupus Nephritis. Throughout this time I’ve met many amazing people, have lost lots of my fellow dialysis friends, and have seen many leave dialysis due to transplantation. Through the grace of God, I was recently put on the active transplant list and very shortly after, I received the gift of life through kidney transplant. Along with the excitement and gratitude, my thoughts turn to the expense of keeping my new kidney healthy.

My struggle with kidney disease started at the age of eight when I started getting really sick and was diagnosed with lupus nephritis. At the age of ten, I felt I was starting to get better when my mother started getting ill. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and lost her battle within a year. Without our mother, my brother and I were separated; I went to live with my Aunt and my brother went to live with my uncle. After completing grade school and high school, I received an academic scholarship to attend ASU. In Sep 2007, I was starting to get ill again and discovered that my kidneys had failed. It didn’t stop me, I continued to go to school and graduate from ASU with a degree in Family and Human Development with an Emphasis in Child Development. I’m now doing what I love and working as a Teacher at a Montessori school and I look forward to continuing living, learning, and teaching after transplant, but I need your help because transplants are very expensive.

Even with insurance, there are many transplant related costs that must be paid out of pocket including copays, caregiver expenses and the anti-rejection medications that I will have to take for the rest of my life. The medications alone can be several thousand a month.

To help with the financial burden of my uninsured expenses, a fundraising campaign in my 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 Southwest Kidney Transplant Fund, and are administered by HelpHOPELive for transplant-related expenses only. Please consider making a contribution.

Please share my story with anyone you can. I would greatly appreciate any donation. My new kidney and I will love you forever. Thank you for your support!

Gratefully,

Blessy