Brent Johnson is a long-time Lockergnome community member, and sent me the following email:

My mom is a 70 year old woman from Corpus Christi, TX named Barbara Beevers. She has suffered with Emphysema and COPD for years, and just recently, she was approved for a lung transplant operation at Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas.

She is currently awaiting donor lungs. Those might come tonight, or it could be weeks or months ahead. Due to the complexity of the operation, Methodist Hospital required mom to come to Houston, Texas (at her own expense) to be within 1 hour of the hospital when the donor lungs do become available. After the operation, she will have to remain in Houston for at least 4-6 months so that she can be within immediate reach of the transplant team should a crisis arise.

Although her operation, hospitalization and medical costs are covered by insurance, her pre and post operative living expenses and some of her anti-rejection medications are not. She’s having to maintain her apartment and utilities in Corpus Christi AND pay for housing, utilities, living expenses and transportation in Houston. In essence, that means trying to maintain two homes. And she’s doing this with her only income being her monthly Social Security check.

One of the requirements for lung transplantation is showing financial security. The transplant team believes that if a recipient is focused on money worries they won’t focus on their recovery. And right now, she has tremendous financial worries.

MARTHA DOESN’T LIVE HERE “Living For Unpretentious People”

It’s a full-color, ad-free, professionally printed quarterly magazine published through Magcloud/Hewlett-Packard. It features some of mom’s most cherished family recipes, restaurant recipes, award winning 4-H/FHA recipes, recipes from family and friends, cooking tips, household tips, gardening tips, and even some tips for the guys in the household.

Thanks to the generous printing support of Magcloud/Hewlett-Packard, 100% of all proceeds (not just profits, but ALL the money raised) will go directly to Barbara to help with living and medicine expenses.

We’ve made a small preview issue available FREE OF CHARGE for everyone to download in the form of a PDF file. It’s 6 pages long, and it briefly shows what to expect from the printed version of the magazine. Your readers can download the FREE VERSION.

We hope you readers will enjoy the FREE PDF Preview Issue, and we hope a few of them will find it within themselves to purchase the printed version of the magazine. Not only will they get a first-class magazine, they will also be helping a woman that has completely exhausted all her financial resources and needs the help of others if she’s ever going to be able to stay in Houston long enough to get the donor lungs. The two of us (mom and myself) are the only two people we have in our family. We have no one else to call upon, and we really need the help of the online community.

If all you’re interested in doing is providing a link, that’s fine. People can visit the site for more info.

If we can impose upon you just a little, we have produced nice graphics, in a variety of sizes and formats, that will fit most any blog post, sidebar, email signature, message board, etc. You can find and pick from them (along with easy-to-install code).

If none of those are suitable for your use and you would like something in a different size, color or format, just ask. One of our graphics volunteers will come up with something to meet your requirements ASAP.

I truly appreciate you taking the time to consider this. I know this is an awful lot to ask, but I would hate to see her transplant chances vanish simply because she cannot afford to pay her living expenses in Houston. And without the transplant, her life expectancy is not very long.

The information in this email was verified. It is very real, and Barbara is in serious need of help. Why not visit the site for more information today?

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