{"id":845,"date":"2017-11-27T19:53:48","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T19:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountainhope.wpengine.com\/?p=845"},"modified":"2019-09-23T21:07:03","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T21:07:03","slug":"giving_tuesday-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/giving_tuesday-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Tuesday 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 21, 2017<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Friends,<\/p>\n

The first time I sat down to write this letter about a week ago, my heart wasn\u2019t in it. An old friend and co-worker had been on my mind.\u00a0 I\u00a0lost Allen to Hepatitis C almost 15 years ago and his death has weighed heavily on me since. I was pregnant and because of his illness, I had not been allowed even to say goodbye. It\u2019s one of a few reasons I hadn\u2019t been much in the mood to write this letter.<\/p>\n

I think we all get a little jaded sometimes. After last year\u2019s fires, the community has mostly settled back into its old patterns. Buildings have been rebuilt, children are back in school, the number of folks who need breathing meds has lessened, and I am back in my office, armed with coffee and a pen, ready to write another letter to you all, a year later. It is what I do, but I am tired of thinking that there are so many ways we are still fighting fires.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Monday when I get the call, \u201cIan Hanson is here to see you,\u201d a patient of Jason Brackins, our physician\u2019s assistant, and someone Jason thinks I should meet. Ian soon stands at my door, and there is nothing remarkable about him.\u00a0 Noticing he looks nervous, I assure him I just want to talk.<\/p>\n

Ian speaks softly as he tells me his mother remarried when he was 8. Ian\u2019s stepfather often crossed the line of verbal abuse, and he endured until graduation day. \u201cThey threw me a graduation party,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI left their home the minute it was over.\u201d\u00a0 Ian\u2019s mother, Linda, divorced his stepfather shortly thereafter, and Ian, now a father himself, moved back in with her to help pay expenses.<\/p>\n

After being laid off from a second job, Ian enlisted in the Army, but soon received a medical discharge due to issues with his ankles. Ian, having failed at a relationship with his daughter\u2019s mother, and having few options for work, became depressed. Eventually, Linda moved back in with his stepfather.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At this point, the story takes a much darker turn, as Ian relays to me finding his stepfather\u2019s body outside the house, the\u00a0result of suicide.\u00a0 \u201cThings got really bad then,\u201d he says, pained.\u00a0 Indeed, his next few months were riddled with bad decisions\u00a0and anxiety and drug abuse\u2014the final leg in Ian\u2019s journey to rock bottom. He describes the squalor he saw around him during those months, the numbness, the sharing of needles\u2026 and then, \u201cI couldn\u2019t let my kid see me like that,\u201d he shivers as he sits in the chair before me. \u201cI had to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Linda told Ian that she planned to move to Tennessee, he jumped at the chance to make a change. He\u2019s been clean a year.<\/p>\n

Ian first came to the Clinic with a cold.\u00a0 His new job didn\u2019t afford him health coverage.\u00a0 Jason noticed something awry in Ian\u2019s basic blood\u00a0panel, and soon discovered Ian was Hepatitis C-positive. \u201cThat\u2019s a big blow when you\u2019re finally getting your world together.\u201d\u00a0 Indeed.\u00a0 A quick lesson: Hep C is a chronic viral infection of the liver and is transmitted by body fluids. Those diagnosed often die an excruciating death as their livers are destroyed. Blood donors weren\u2019t checked for Hep C before 1992, so a lot of people are spreading it who simply don\u2019t know they have it. \u201cI got it from making bad decisions,\u201d Ian tells me, but not everyone gets it that way. Most Baby Boomers don\u2019t consider getting screened. Hep C is multiplying exponentially.\u00a0 It is one of the many fires we\u2019re still fighting at Mountain Hope, and it won\u2019t be the last.<\/p>\n

I have always cringed at the words \u201cHep C\u201d as it continues to make people horribly sick, but \u00a0I also know that now, people who can afford it can beat Hep C thanks to Gilead, a drug company that makes the medicine Harvoni. The harsh reality is that the 12-week course of medication that leads to a 97% cure rate costs about $92,000.\u00a0 Would Allen and his family have been able to come up with that money if he\u2019d gotten sick later?\u00a0 I have wondered about that a lot lately. My guess is they wouldn\u2019t\u2026 and I knew too well that Ian would have no shot at coming up with those funds either.<\/p>\n

Yet, on August 7, Jason put Ian on the drug that will <\/em>cure him. \u00a0Robin Young, our patient assistance rep, had begun working with Gilead to get the drug donated at no cost.\u00a0 \u201c$92,000,\u201d Ian lowers his eyes and tells me, \u201cGod bless Gilead.\u201d I\u2019m a little emotional. In an effort to lighten the mood, I ask Ian what he loves about Sevier County.\u00a0 \u201cI can be healthy here,\u201d he smiles.\u00a0 \u201cThe air is good. The views are amazing.\u00a0 This place is changing me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason tells me that we have about a dozen patients on this medication, all with unique stories; I would give just about anything to be able to tell Allen we are saving people from the horrible death he endured.\u00a0 All<\/em> of them are going to be cured because of our partnership with Gilead; we\u2019re putting a dent in stopping the spread of this disease here in Sevier County. It is one of a thousand reasons it is so important to keep our doors open.<\/p>\n

So again, I\u2019m asking for help.\u00a0 You know that folks depend on us when they sprain an ankle or get the flu, and can\u2019t afford a doctor otherwise, but it\u2019s bigger than that because we\u2019re all vested in this community. We can\u2019t afford to let a disease like Hep C run rampant here\u2014and Hep C is just one threat. What we do here means we\u2019re all<\/em> better off\u2026Fifteen years from now, no friend of one of those dozen patients will wonder What if\u2026?<\/em><\/p>\n

This year, my own donation will be in honor of the memory of the beloved friend I lost too soon.\u00a0 Perhaps you can also honor someone you love as you make a life-saving gift.\u00a0 Please, as Christmas approaches, remember that health can\u2019t be taken for granted. Our patients and this community need you. If you can do nothing more, I ask you to pray for us in Sevier County.\u00a0 If you can help us with the costs of providing medical care, emergency dental care, and prescription drugs for our neighbors, I want you to know you\u2019re making a difference that is beyond measure– for people like Ian and more than 23,000 others.\u00a0 You are part of the tradition of generosity and grace and hope that has always made Sevier County the best place in the world to \u00a0\u00a0\u2026\u2026call home, a place that changes people for the better, and you are the reason we will rally and overcome diseases and other obstacles like Hep C. I think I said it last year when we were fighting the effects of literal fires: We are in this together, and we will survive and thrive.<\/em><\/p>\n

May you be blessed for your faithfulness,<\/p>\n

Ashley Burnette, Director of Fund Development<\/p>\n

Mary Vance, Executive Director<\/p>\n

Cl\u00ednica del Buen Pastor Mountain Hope<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *names in this letter have been changed to assure privacy<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/mountainhope.wpengine.com\/donate\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 21, 2017 Dear Friends, The first time I sat down to write this letter about a week ago, my heart wasn\u2019t in it. An old friend and co-worker had been on my mind.\u00a0 I\u00a0lost Allen to Hepatitis C almost 15 years ago and his death has weighed heavily on me since. I was pregnant […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundraisers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainhope.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}