Laurie's Story

Donation Recipient: Tina

Greg,

I was reminded this weekend that I had not shared what we did with the gift you gave us over the holiday season. I was reminded of this when the recipient of the gift came to the house to show off her brand new insulin pump. We have had one of the boys friends in our life for about 15 years now named Mike. His sister, Tina, was a big help to us when the boys were first diagnosed with diabetes 13 years ago. She is a diabetic and it provided us a lot of piece of mind to have someone familiar with the disease to watch over the boys in the summer when we both were working. Their family is a very traditional Philipino family - they all live together still, Mom, 5 brother and sisters, their husbands, wives and grandchildren all in the same house. They do not have a lot of money and struggle to make ends meet. Tina began having problems with her diabetes and was told that an insulin pump would help her out greatly. Her eyesight was beginning to be affected and she was having high blood sugar reactions at work, which was affecting her performance. Her insurance told her they would cover the cost of the pump and supplies. She was excited about it and ordered it, only to find out when it came that it was going to cost her $500 - a cost the insurance company had not told her about. They did not have the $500 so they had to cancel the order.

Because Mike was so concerned about his sister, he was sharing the story with us one day. Realizing that not everyone is as lucky as we are with their insurance, Billy and I wanted to do something for her. The next day, I received your gift in my mailbox at the office. We took your $100 and added the rest of it and went to deliver it to them over the holiday season. There were lots of tears and hugs all around. They ordered the pump once more and it arrived last week. She showed up at the house on Saturday so excited about it. The boys have had their pumps for about 5 years now and I know it completely changed our lives. I can't wait to see how Tina does with hers, and the changes she should expect to see in the next few months. Her general health and her eyesight in particular should see an immediate improvement.

It was so cool to see how excited she was. She held the pump like it was an egg that might break and asked all kinds of questions. Tyson was able to answer them with no problem. He has long considered Tina to be an older sister to him, and I know it meant a lot to him that he could give back some of the love that she has shown him.

Thank you for thinking of me - the timing was uncanny!

Laurie