Helen Helpenstill

Many of you know my wonderful mother, Helen Helpenstill. She is also the mother of Albert, fun loving Granny of 3 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. Helen lives in remote Bush Alaska near her family and friends. She enjoys taking walks, gardening, traveling and spending time with her friends and family.

What you may not know is that Helen suffers from end stage renal failure. Dialysis is not an option because of where she lives. The nearest city that offers dialysis is a 10 hour drive in the summer months through mountains, 180 of those miles on a gravel road. From October to April there is no road access, requiring a 11/2 hour expensive plane ride, weather permitting. Her doctors at Virginia Mason Medical Center have told us that she is in need of a life-saving kidney transplant. She has two potential living donors who are being tested now. This is a challenge that we can not meet alone and need help.

Not only is a transplant a major surgical procedure, it is also very expensive. Even with insurance there will be many costs that must be paid for out of pocket. Once we have a donor identified, Helen and a required caregiver will be traveling from Eagle, her home, and will be required to be near the hospital in Seattle, Washington for a minimum of five weeks for pre-transplant testing, the kidney transplant itself and the initial post transplant recovery period. Helen and her caregiver will then have to spend 6 months in the Anchorage area, before being able to return home to Eagle. In addition to these relocation expenses, Helen will be on a lifetime of anti-rejection medication.

To help offset some of these extraordinary expenses, a fundraising campaign has been established with HelpHOPELive (HelpHOPELive). HelpHOPELive is a nonprofit organization that has been providing assistance to the transplant community for over 27 years. All contributions are administered by HelpHOPELive exclusively for uninsured transplant-related costs and are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. Please consider making a contribution today.With sincere gratitude,

Jan and Don Woodruff
907-547-2397
[email protected]