Denise Ryan wrote to me recently asking if there was anything I could do to help her raise funds for a very important cause, her health. Denise turned 30 this year. So did I! Denise has a girl crush on the amazing Susan Jane White – so do I! Denise loves Scrabble – I love Scrabble! I want to be friends with this girl and hang out and have coffee and go walk the dog she’s going to get one day, but at the moment she’s generally confined to being at home and so I need to enlist your help with this.
“When you reach the milestone of turning 30, you think you’ll be building a life for yourself, with somewhere to live, friends, a job and maybe a family. Noone prepares you for the possibility that you might be so ill that you need you need your mother to dress you, or learn to give yourself a sponge bath, struggling to eat and keep weight on.”
In some emails exchanged between the two of us, Denise told me what her aspirations were, “I’ve never had huge aspirations, I just wanted to be a librarian, have a big dog, play Scrabble, and do things that made both myself and others happy.”
Denise has had digestive and immune system problems her whole life but in the past few years contracted lyme disease. She’s raising funds so she can go to a specialised clinic in the states. You can read more about Denise and her condition here. And while this is all hard for Denise, and her first trip over must have been exhausting, she spoke beautifully about the people around her helping her.
“A month ago I bundled together all of the energy, money and hope I had and made the journey to a treatment clinic in California. I was worried as I did not have the funding to afford care assistance, but was amazed by the kindness and generosity of three ladies I met there. Despite also being quite ill, they helped me with groceries, transport, picking up medication and making sure I had everything I needed. One of these amazing women even invited me to Thanksgiving with her friends and family, and while I struggle greatly in social situations now due to neurological and physical symptoms, it warmed my heart to meet the people she loves and how kind, welcoming and accommodating they were towards me. I am forever grateful for their assistance, and for their friendship.”
Let’s give her a million more things to be thankful for and touched by, in the form of donations, sharing the link and/or messages of support and love. http://www.gofundme.com/3000tenners. Find my scrabble-buddy to be on twitter too @irishmcginger and tell her she’s lovely and brave and wonderful and send her pictures of cute puppies for when she’s choosing what type of dog she’ll get. If she hasn’t decided already. #HappyDenisemas #3000Tenners
