Rowena Manalang

The family of Rowena Manalang is raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with a Transplant. Rowena has chosen to fundraise with Help Hope Live in part because donations are tax deductible for contributors and will only be used to cover medical and related expenses.—Rowena is recovering from a bilateral lung transplant. The surgery was on October 15th, 2024. Words can’t even explain how thankful we are for her medical teams. She has an opportunity to live a healthy life with new lungs. That being said, she will forever be a lung transplant patient and way of life might not look the same (sadly no more salad buffets at Ruby Tuesday which used to be her favorite!). When she went to the hospital on September 26th, 2024, her oxygen was at dangerously low levels, and she was put on high flow oxygen and other support mechanisms only available in the hospital. It was determined that it was either new lungs or hospice. Rowena and the family had been consulting with the transplant team since this summer. She was referred to the transplant team this year by her Pulmonologist. She was diagnosed in 2016 with Rheumatoid Arthritis-induced Interstitial Lung Disease. RA-ILD has no cure. Daily life was a struggle as her lungs continued to worsen. Throughout the years and more recently, she’s been in and out of hospitals. However, you are not eligible for a transplant until your lung function is at a significantly low percentage. Recovery will be hard, and there is a long road ahead. But we are grateful that she is here today. Your support means the world to us. With love, The Manalangs