 November 29, 2022 is Giving Tuesday! What is Giving Tuesday? It's a national day dedicated to supporting those in need in your community. This Giving Tuesday, help us support lung transplant patients around the country by donating to The Sid Foundation. How can you participate? You can participate in several ways: 1. Donate to our organization 2. Spread the word about our organization by
How will your donation help? You donation will help:
Why Do Lung Transplant Patients Need Your Help? Lung transplants have the lowest survival rate of all organ transplants and only about 50% of lung transplant patients live 5 years past their transplant. But, lung transplants provide people with a second chance at life. That is priceless! So, please help us change the statistics of lung transplants and help lung transplant patients breathe easier by donating today. Want a more convenient way to donate?
You can Donate by Text! Text: HelpSid To: (470) 444-2029 Help lung transplant patients like Sid have a fighting chance at living a long healthy life. Donate Now!
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We have great news!
We relaunched out “care package” program for lung transplant patients in April 2022! Unfortunately, we had to pause this program in 2021 due to lack of funding, but it's back! This means if you emailed us requesting a care package, we are sending one out to you. We are ordering supplies and putting together new care packages as we speak. But... We can't do this without your help. There are about 2,000 lung transplants done in the U.S. every year. This number has increased due to COVID-19. Our ultimate goal is to make sure every lung transplant patient receives a care package with all the essentials they need to live a healthy life after their transplant. Please donate to our Lung Transplant Patient Support Program so we can get these care packages to as many lung transplant patients as possible. Please help us change the statistics and increase the survival rate of lung transplant recipients by donating to our Lung Transplant Patient Support Program today.
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 Image credit: "blacklivesmatter - July 09, 2016 (04 of 42).jpg" by micurs is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 We are deeply saddened by the state of our country right now.
As a nonprofit, our work is always to help those who are underserved or those whose voices are unheard in the community. In the last five years, despite meeting and getting to know many lung transplant patients, we couldn’t help but notice the lack of diversity in people who are able to get a lung transplant in this country. It is because of economic and racial inequality in the United States that many people of color do not have access to the healthcare system. This means that there are many people of color who have lung diseases and need lung transplants, but cannot afford to see a doctor or get a transplant because of a lack of health insurance or funding. Because of this disparity, we have been able to help very few people of color who need lung transplants. They often just don’t have the resources to get one. Our goal for the near future is to continue to build ourselves and raise more funds so that we can not only financially assist lung transplant patients who are already on their way to getting a transplant, but also have the resources and funding to help more people of color who may not even get the opportunity to see a doctor about their lung health issues and help them pay for an entire transplant. The state of our country is especially grave right now. Again, due to racial inequality, COVID-19 has been disproportionately killing Black and Indigenous Americans. On top of that, today police brutality is one of the leading causes of deaths for Black males in America. The combination of COVID-19 and racial inequality affects lung transplant patients of color in more devastating ways than white lung transplant patients and makes their survival much more difficult. In addition to lung transplants being expensive, over half of lung transplant patients do not live more than 5 years post transplant. These odds of survival are lessened even more for transplant patients of color due to the factors I mentioned earlier. We stand in solidarity with our Black lung transplant patients as well as Black Americans with lung health issues. We stand in solidarity with all Black Americans during this difficult time. We hope to continue to grow our small nonprofit to serve your needs more efficiently in the near future. I am the President of The Sid Foundation and am a woman of color. Although nonprofits like ours (run by POC) are statistically doomed to fail within the first couple of years and do not receive as much funding as nonprofits run by white board members and administrators, we are going to continue to beat the odds to serve our community. Due to COVID-19, our organization has taken a huge hit financially. We are not stopping our work, however, and will continue to keep moving forward until we see better times. We hope that our immunocompromised transplant patients have the ability to stay home and stay safe. If not, we hope that you have access to protective gear to keep yourself as safe as possible. To our supporters who are not immunocompromised, please keep transplant patients and anyone else that might be immunocompromised in your thoughts as you go about your daily activities to make sure you are making the environment safer for them. Here are some resources that you can use to help you stay safe during these times. You can also donate to these organizations to help others stay safe: The World Health Organization The National Healthcare for the Homeless Council The American Civil Liberties Union Black Lives Matter The Minnesota Freedom Fund 
Thank you to everyone who helped us raise funds for Nicole Fournier!
Because of your donations we were able to raise $300 to help Nicole begin her new life. How Will Your Donations Help Nicole? Nicole has had to relocate due to her lung transplant surgery. These funds will help her with living costs and/or medical bills related to her transplant. Lung transplants have the lowest survival rate of all organ transplants, so your donations are helping Nicole beat the odds and live a longer healthier life with her new lungs. About Nicole To read more about Nicole’s journey click here. Donations If you haven't donated to Nicole’s fundraiser yet, it's not too late! Donate here: 
Thank you to everyone who helped us raise funds for Ellis Perez.
Because of your donations we are able to give Ellis $1,000 for their journey to get a double lung transplant! How Will Your Donations Help Ellis? You are helping Ellis move to North Carolina and pay for medical tests so they can be listed as a lung transplant patient and get a chance at a normal life. About Ellis To read more about Ellis' journey click here. Donations If you haven't donated to Ellis' fundraiser yet, it's not too late! Donate here: Reach Out If you are a lung transplant patient that could use our help, please don't hesitate to reach out to us through the website, social media, or email (info@thesidfoundation.org). Once again, a huge thank you to our donors for helping patients like Ellis Perez beat the odds and helping us change the statistics for lung transplant patients! 
We can't believe it's already been a year since we launched our Lung Transplant Patient Support program!
Here's what we've accomplished so far with this project:
We want to thank all of our donors and corporate sponsors for funding this project for the past year. We hope to continue earning your support as we grow this program. We are excited for all of the lung transplant patients that have reached out to us for help on their journey. If you are a lung transplant patient, please reach out to us! Donate here to support our lung transplant patient support program:  If you have been keeping up with our growing Lung Transplant Patient Support Program, you know that we are launching our Care Package program this year.
What is the Care Package? We are putting together care packages for lung transplant patients around the country. These packages include essentials that a lung transplant patient needs for everyday life after a transplant. Many of these are essential items that health insurance may not cover like a spirometer or face masks. What is in the Care Package? The care package includes:
How do lung transplant patients receive a Care Package? We are partnering with hospitals that perform lung transplant surgeries to get these packages to the patients. We are putting together the packages and sending them to different hospitals. The hospitals will give out the care packages to lung transplant patients when they are being discharged. Currently, we are working with the University of Kentucky Hospital Lung Transplant Program. We hope to work with many more hospitals soon! Lung Transplant patients can also contact us directly if they are interested in receiving a package and we will send it to them. How can you help? If you are not a lung transplant patient, you can help by donating to our Lung Transplant Patient Support Program so that more lung transplant patients can have the necessary tools they need to beat the statistics and thrive. If you work at a hospital that performs lung transplant surgeries, you can help us partner with your hospital so we can get these care packages into the hands of more lung transplant patients. If you work for a company that makes any of the products listed above, please contact us and help us get these items at a discounted rate or as donations so we can help as many lung transplant patients as possible with our limited budget. If you are a lung transplant patient, you can help by spreading the word and contacting us and requesting a care package for yourself! We are very excited to get this new program off the ground and are grateful to partner with the University of Kentucky Hospital Lung Transplant Program! We are also grateful for our corporate sponsor, Kriya Capital, for funding this program! If you have questions about this program or would like to help, please feel free to email us at info@thesidfoundation.org. 
Thank you to all of you who have donated to help Stephanie Buswell pay medical bills as she goes through her lung transplant process.
In just one month, you have donated over $3,000 for Stephanie! How Will Your Donations Help? Stephanie is planning to use these funds to help with medical bills that include her copay for doctor visits and other bills that come about during her transplant process. By donating, you have made Stephanie's journey a little bit less stressful. Once again thank you all for supporting Stephanie! About Stephanie To learn more about Stephanie's journey, click here. Donate If you haven't donated yet, click on the link below. Reach Out If you are a lung transplant patient or are about to receive a lung transplant, reach out to us so we can help you on your journey! You can learn more about our Lung Transplant Patient Support Program here. Once again, thank you for all your donations and support! 
“After I receive this double lung transplant I hope just the everyday living tasks are a lot easier. Just being able to spending my life making countless memories with my children without the struggle to breathe.” Stephanie is a 32 year old Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patient who is in need of a double lung transplant. She was diagnosed with CF when she was 6 weeks old and has had many complications along the way. Stephanie was an athlete and dancer during her childhood. Her active lifestyle kept her CF symptoms at bay for most of her school years. However, when she was a senior in high school, she was hospitalized for the first time. After high school her CF continued to worsen especially after she became pregnant with her first child at 22. The weight she gained from her first pregnancy made it difficult for her lungs to function properly. Her second pregnancy made her life even more difficult. Although she had two healthy children without CF, her health took a turn for the worse. Stephanie is now raising her two children with only 20% lung function. Everyday tasks like playing with her children are extremely difficult for her and she spends much of her time taking breathing treatments during the day. She also stopped working at her job as a medical billing and coder and give up many hobbies such as swimming, traveling, and dancing. In 2018 alone she has been hospitalized 5 times. She was put on oxygen 24/7 and on a feeding tube to help her gain weight. Following her last serious hospitalization episode, her doctors began the process of getting her ready for a double lung transplant. Without it, they said, she has about two more years to live. Despite all of the hardships, Stephanie is hopeful about the future. “After I receive this double lung transplant I hope just the everyday living tasks are a lot easier. Just being able to spending my life making countless memories with my children without the struggle to breathe.” She also has some inspiring words and advice for others living with CF. “I’d just like to let anyone who is fighting this disease [know] to never give up [and] always have hope. I have beaten the odds past my life expectancy of 18, [and] was told I couldn’t conceive or even birth a child. I’m very blessed with two very healthy cystic fibrosis free kids. Never let anyone tell you that you won’t or can’t. Believe in yourself and just keep fighting!” Stephanie plans to use the funds donated for medical bills her insurance doesn’t cover such as co-pays and other post-transplant care. 
You can help Stephanie on her road to a double lung transplant by donating here:  Thank you to all of the donors who helped Chris Zastrow! We raised over $1500 dollars in one month to help him with his medical expenses on his journey towards getting a double lung transplant.
Chris will use the funds donated to purchase a spirometer called Spiro PD (not covered by insurance) to help him keep track of his lung function post transplant. We wish Chris the best of luck on his lung transplant journey and hope to learn more from his post transplant experience. If you haven't already read Chris' inspiring story, read it here. If you would still like to donate to Chris' journey, just donate through our website and type "Chris Zastrow" in the message section. Click here to learn more about our Lung Transplant Patient Support Program. If you are a lung transplant patient and would like us to share your story or help you on your journey, please reach out to us at info@thesidfoundation.org. Once again, thank you to all our donors for making this fundraiser a success! |
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