Lori Stephens

Lori’s Story—There is hope—that hope is you

I am in a long battle with liver disease, it started as fatty liver and as the years went by I went into NASH Non-alcoholic Steatohepatits, now I have cirrhosis. During this time my liver function would decrease and then come back to normal and I would feel well again. As of late, I have been having bouts with my ammonia level and it has gone dangerously high. That causes me to lose memory, my mood changes and I would be unlike myself. I would have to be hospitalized for several days until the levels came back to normal stage.

When being diagnosed with cirrhosis people automatically think of a drink or a drug user. I am neither nor have I ever been. I have been a daughter to an amazing set of parents, Bill and Gay Wright, a sister to Billy, a wife to Matt, a mom to Meagan, an aunt to Alex and Samantha and now a grandmother to Bryan. My family nor I deserve what we have been dealt. I have always lived my life the way I wanted, now I can’t. This diagnosis has truly sucked the life out of me. But I still push myself to be a wife, mom, momaw, friend and hard worker. I won’t let this disease get me down.

I am now working with the University of Virginia in getting me a new liver. This is no easy feat. I have type O blood, this is unique in that we can give all other blood types our blood, but we can only receive O. To put it in perspective there is a national shortage of type O blood donations. Can you imagine what the shortage looks like for type O liver donor? A liver is the fix to my problem. There is no medicine in the world that would make me better.

While I have medical insurance through my work and my husband’s, we will still have many expenses because of the transplant. My surgery alone is about $14,000.00. I will have living expenses while staying in Virginia to go to doctor appointments and blood work, expenses for anti-rejection medicine, caregiver expenses and living expenses while me and my husband are off work for the healing process.

Donations to Help Hope Live can help ease the financial burden of a transplant and allow me to focus on a healthy recovery and a long life ahead with my family.

Family and friends of Lori Stephens are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with transplantation.

Lori has chosen to fundraise for Help Hope Live in part because Help Hope Live assures fiscal accountability of funds raised and tax deductibility to the full extent allowed by law for contributors. Contributors can be sure donations will be used to pay or reimburse medical and related expenses. To make a tax-deductible donation to this fundraising campaign, click on the Give button.

For more information, please contact Help Hope Live at 800.642.8399.

Thank you for your support!