Hello friends. One of our UCWGA union sisters, who is a building services worker at UGA in the College of Education and a leader of our current campaign for free parking for UGA employees, is going through a hard time right now. Her only child had a kidney transplant on April 25th. At age 24, her son found out that he had undiagnosed high blood pressure, which led to renal hypertension and resulted in kidney failure. After getting dialysis three days a week for the past two years, he recently found a donor to give him a kidney. 

With all of the emotional stress that has been on our beloved member, we would like to help lift some of the financial stress. Thankfully, her son has been able to receive Medicare, but she is still having to pay $2,500 out-of-pocket for the procedure and just learned of unexpected high prescription costs for immunosuppressants, needed post-surgery. Additionally, she has had to drive multiple times from Athens to Emory in Atlanta for testing and pre-op, has had multiple expenses while she's been in Atlanta with her son during his surgery and recovery, and will need to return to Atlanta monthly for the next four months for his follow-up appointments. Also, though she thankfully has paid vacation and sick leave from her job at UGA, she has had to miss many evenings of working her second job, where she cleans her church. We have modestly estimated that all of these costs add up to $3,500- so, in addition to the $2,500 out-of-pocket medical costs, we are hoping to raise $6,000 for our beloved member and her family. Again, if we can take this extra stress away from her and lift a good portion of this financial burden, it would be so tremendously helpful. Any small amount is appreciated.. even $5 will cover a gallon and a half of gas!

We are so grateful for your solidarity and love for our UCWGA-UGA union sister and her family during this stressful time.