Doing Good: For Raven

Raven McKnight is an esteemed editor at Loose Id Publishing. She needs our help.

Years ago, my dear friend and mentor Maureen emailed me with the grim news that she'd been diagnosed with multiple myloma, which is a form of bone cancer. She had no insurance and relied on Medicare to fund her treatment. She was given four months to live. But Mo defied the odds and outlived that initial prognosis many times over. Why? Because she opted out of the lethal form of chemo that Medicare approved and entered an alternate treatment program that focused on nutrition and food supplements.

She lived four years past the time she'd been given.

The medication she opted for was not terribly expensive but was beyond her budget, and her treatment center was in Seattle, while she lived in Colville, to the east. With the assistance of her friends in town, she made her appointments. With the assistance of her friends all over the country, we kept her supplied with the medications that kept her alive.

Raven is in a similar situation. She needs medication but cannot afford it. The sad fact is that we live in a time and a country where we have to rely on ourselves to fund our medical treatment. Way back when, the first President Bush spoke of community charity as"...a thousand points of light." Well, its time to light those candles. Insurance programs fight us, and the government programs we've paid into for decades are denying us. So its time we make an effort to take care of our own.

Raven's authors have put together a collection to help fund Raven's meds. The target goal is small...only $800. And for the smallest contribution of $1.00, you are entered to win downloads of e-books that Raven's authors have donated. There are other prize packages as well.

We have the choice about where to send our money. I don't have much, but I've decided to take the monthly contributions I generally send to my causes and divert it here. Make a small sacrifice...give up a couple lattes or swap lunch out for a brown bag lunch. It doesn't have to hurt and it can do a world of good.

For Raven: http://igg.me/p/100227?a=259349