Bobbi Keel

Bobbi Needs Your Help!

My name is Bobbi Keel, a 45-year-old woman who is very ill. From the time I was a 2 ½ year old little girl, I have battled diabetes and, on 2/7/1993, I received my first kidney/pancreas transplant. I was 20 at the time. Fortunately, my health was relatively stable for the next 13 years until 2006 when my pancreas became infected. A year after that, a car accident destroyed my kidney. Ever since then, I have been on dialysis three days a week. It has been over a decade. My doctors at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center have told me I need a second kidney/pancreas transplant to return to good health. Your help will make the difference.

I come from an average family with two brothers and two sisters. Though each of us lives very different lives and have our own unique ideas, we all stick together! Over the years my family has been wonderfully supportive. They’ve seen me struggle with high blood pressure and poor circulation and even temporary blindness. A typical day for me starts very early in the morning. I drive 40 miles to be hooked up to a dialysis machine for 4 ½ hours. When I return home, usually around 1 p.m., I am so tired unable to work or even visit with friends. I feel like I am dying a little more each day, like my head is way too heavy for my shoulders, my legs lacking any muscle with unsightly veins showing through my thin skin. Through all of this, I am holding on to the hope that I will receive this gift of life.

Transplants are life-saving but financially draining. Even with insurance, I’m facing very high expenses including travel (240 miles round trip to the transplant center) and relocation for me and my caregiver, post-transplant anti-rejection medication I will need to take for the rest of my life, copays and meals. This is a challenge I cannot face alone! However, as a person who looks at a problem from all sides before deciding on the best plan of action, I have chosen to look at my health in the same way. With this in mind, I have started on a fundraising journey.

To help with this financial burden of uninsured expenses, a fundraising campaign in my 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 full extent allowed by law, are held by Help Hope Live in the Northwest Kidney/Pancreas Transplant Fund, and are administered by Help Hope Live for transplant-related expenses only. Please consider a contribution.

For credit card contributions, please click on the yellow Donate Now button.

Your support is critical to the overall success of my struggle. Please know that your contribution counts. Thank you in advance for your kind consideration.

With sincere gratitude,

Bobbi Keel
[email protected]