Michelle Paulette Zastawny

Help HOPE Live for Michelle Zastawny -The Journey So Far

We are incredibly blessed that our mother, Michelle “Mickey” Zastawny, recently received a lifesaving kidney transplant. In November 2025, she received her miracle: two kidneys from a single donor, an extremely rare procedure that she warmly calls being doubly blessed.

Watching her fight kidney disease—enduring years of dialysis three days a week, then major transplant surgery through the University of Michigan—has been a testament to her strength, grace, and love for her family. However, while her surgery was a resounding success, the hardest part of her journey is happening right now behind the scenes.

The Hidden Cost of a Healthy Kidney Keeping Mom’s new kidneys alive and healthy requires an exhausting, lifelong medical regimen. To prevent organ rejection, she takes a massive daily stack of powerful immunosuppressive medications. Because these drugs severely weaken her immune system and carry intense side effects, her health requires constant surveillance. This means relentless, high-frequency doctor appointments, specialized and expensive lab work, and sudden emergency evaluations at the slightest sign of a complication.

The Invisible Emotional Weight Beyond the physical recovery, receiving a lifesaving gift brings a complex emotional journey. Processing the immense gratitude alongside the knowledge of a donor family’s loss creates a quiet, heavy mental weight—a unique blend of profound joy, grief, and survivor’s guilt that takes time and deep care to navigate. Living with the constant hyper-vigilance required to protect these precious kidneys adds an ongoing emotional toll to her day-to-day recovery.

Why We Need Your Help Even with insurance, the cumulative out-of-pocket costs are overwhelming. Between steep monthly prescription copays, frequent specialist fees, and the continuous “invisible” expenses of travel, hospitals, and specialized home care, the financial strain is piling up rapidly.

To ensure Mickey can focus entirely on healing without the crushing weight of medical debt, we are continuing her Help Hope Live campaign .

No contribution is too small. Whether it is $10, $25, or simply sharing this page with your network, (https://helphopelive.org/campaign/21445/) every single dollar helps ease the burden of her lifelong prescriptions, medical travel, and follow-up care.

If you are able to donate, please know that your generosity directly protects the precious gift of life she has been given.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continuous love, prayers, and support!

Michelle Zastawny and family

OUR MOM NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Our Mom, Michelle “Mickey” Zastawny, was diagnosed with kidney disease 5 years ago. She is now on the transplant waiting list through the University of Michigan. Until she receives a transplant, she goes to dialysis 3 days per week for about 4 hours each time.

If you know her, then you know what a generous, creative and talented artist she is!  As a child growing up in Detroit, she found it hard to express herself using words, so she used her art to communicate to the world. She made a career of creating art; whether it was working at the Detroit News as a graphic designer, painting commercial signs through her sign company or getting in the water and painting boats, she has done it all, on top of being a single Mom of two very independent girls.

She moved to Traverse City to be closer to her grandchildren about 10 years ago. She has found a wonderful, creative community at The Old Town Playhouse where she volunteers her time helping with their sets and she has made lots of lasting friendships through the Traverse City Newcomers Club. She has given her time and talents to The Ronald McDonald House in Detroit, the Friends of the Parade Association, various local Church communities, the Traverse City Community Garden and Gladhander. She loves to help others to see the beauty that surrounds us.

Being on dialysis has been quite a challenge and a blessing for Mickey. She is patiently awaiting a kidney transplant, however, the time commitment and adverse reactions with dialysis have been hard for such an active person. Dialysis is also a restrictive intervention because it requires her to attend the clinic 5+ hours, 3 times per week.  As a result, she is unable to commit to many engagements or spend time with family and friends that require travel.  She still gets to her exercise classes at the YMCA though!  

With all the medical treatments and financial requirements that her End Stage Renal Disease has required, we are asking for your help. Even with insurance, transplantation is very expensive. Mickey will have major out-of-pocket medical expenses, including follow-up visits, travel and temporary housing close to Ann Arbor after the transplant, not to mention the costly medications she will have to take for the rest of her life. The financial burden that her disease has left her with has been hard for her in her retirement years. She cannot afford this transplant without our help.

To help offset such expenses, a fundraising campaign in Michelle’s honor has been established with www.HelpHopeLive.org.  To make a tax-deductible donation, click Give now. And please share her campaign page on your social media platforms!

If you would like more information on becoming a living donor, you can call the University of Michigan Transplant Center at 1-800-333-9013.

If we all work together, we can make sure that our Mom and Grammy lives a long and healthy life watching her grandchildren and great grandchildren blossom! Thank you in advance for your generosity and support.

With sincere gratitude,

Kelly Prout and Tracy Jenkins, Mickey’s daughters