A Plea For Help For A Brave Young Lady

When I started this blog, I promised myself that I would not ask my readers for money. Forgive me, but I'm now going to break that promise. Not for myself -- for the young lady in the picture above. Her name is Leola Kinchen, and she needs some help.

Her condition is probably best described by blogger ACG over at Practically Harmless:

This is Leola Kinchen. She has Neurofibromatosis-1, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on nerves and produces abnormalities in skin and bone tissue. Manifestations of NF1 range from mild to debilitating; Lee's are severely so, and it's only through her own determination and the generous help of her caretaker Susan that she's been able to keep her job in retail (although she's becoming physically unable to do so) and stay clothed and fed.

The NF1, which can be a heartless bitch of a disease, has resulted in a brain tumor that is pressing down on eight of the 15 major nerve branches in Lee's brain and causing blockages and constriction in most of the major blood vessels. Lee needs surgery, and she doesn't have insurance, and the state of Louisiana, in their wisdom, has decided that she isn't eligible for SSI/SDI or Medicaid. The necessary series of life-saving operations will cost in the neighborhood of $200,000, which she simply can't afford. The only remaining charity hospital in Louisiana won't be able to take her until March or April, at which she'd probably be dead.

A.S. Coulter at Mark of the Beast has created a web site to try and help Leola [ or Lee as she is called]. The site is leola.blogspot.com. The site has a PayPal button for anyone who would like to donate online. There is also a "snail mail" address for those who prefer it:

Fund for Leola Kinchen
Bank of St. Francisville
P.O. Drawer 818
St. Francisville, Louisiana
70775

I will be sending a donation when my next paycheck comes [I would never suggest you do anything I am not willing to do]. If you can afford it, I humbly ask that you consider sending a few dollars too. It does not have to be a large donation -- ANY amount will be gratefully received and appreciated.

I promise that 100% of all donations will go to Lee to help with her personal and medical needs. No blogger or anyone else, besides Lee, will ever see a penny of any money donated.

This is an opportunity to give a Thanksgiving/Christmas gift that has real meaning -- the saving of a human life.

Here is how Coulter describes this remarkable young woman:

No picture can appropriately display the huge brass ovaries that this skinny little girl (well, she's 25, she's hardly a "girl," but y'all know what I mean) has, nothing that I can write can even begin to capture the huge heart, the wicked sense of humor, the sass, the kindness, the hardest-working-woman-in-West-Feliciana-Parish, spirit or strength of this young woman. I wish that y'all could all meet her in person, just once. You would leave in amazement, because there isn't a person on this planet who could make her feel embarrassed, or weak, or lesser-than, or anything other than the powerful, smart, sharp, hilarious little hussy that she really is. She has more self-esteem and more flat-out BALLS than any woman I've ever known.

She never even had her own BED until Helen, the assistant manager at Fred's, gave her one. She didn't even have hardly any clothes until Susan took her in. She'd already been fucked out of her SSDI/SSI, Medicare & Medicaid, and food stamps, because of her "part-time" job at Fred's, which won't even provide her with a healthcare plan until next year. If she lives that long.

And this is a girl who has never held her hand out to beg for a FUCKING thing from ANYBODY. This is a girl who's been standing on her own two feet for YEARS, and she sure as hell isn't going to become some "victim" now. I look up to her, because as many things that I have to bitch, whine, and complain about, she humbles me, and makes me realize how good I've really got it. Yeah, there are people in the world who have it a helluva lot harder than I do. There are people in the world who have it worse than Lee does, and she damned well knows it. She's grateful for every single day above ground. And she works her little ass off every single day that she's got.

But her legs are starting to fail her. She isn't allowed to use ladders at work anymore, because Susan is terrified that she'll fall again and have a head injury. The time is tight. We don't have forever to save Lee. This is a matter of WEEKS before she is either completely incapacitated or killed by this brain tumor and what it's done to the veins and arteries and nerve branches in her brain.