Jason's Friend Still Needs Our Help!

For those of us who have been following the story of Jason Crouch's good friend, David Wilder, it has been a roller coaster of emotions.  His plight has been well chronicled by Jason and others, notably Melissa Grant, here on Active Rain, but please indulge this brief summary.

David, by all accounts, is one of the good guys.  Upbeat, talkative and just enthusiastic about life in general, he faced the daunting diagnosis of throat cancer recently.  Among other things, he lost his tongue and vocal chords to this insidious disease.  This was only half of the battle, though.

David did not have health insurance at the time of his diagnosis, and as you can imagine, the costs of his treatment have spiraled well out of control.  In addition to the challenges of learning to communicate without a voice and the expenses which are rapidly approaching (if not already there) an insurmountable level, David's family was dealt another devastating blow recently.  After general weakness and fainting spells prompted a return trip to the hospital, David and his wife, Jan, learned that the cancer had returned full force, and was wrapped around all of the vital organs of his neck.  At this point, the doctors have basically done all they can do for him aside from making the coming days and weeks as comfortable as possible.  His fate is truly in God's hands.

I wanted to take this opportunity to beseech the Active Rain community not to turn its collective back on the Wilder family now that hope appears to be waning.  More than ever, the family needs our help.  He is at home under the care of hospice, so I will not even ask you to speculate on the expense.  Whether or not a miracle spares David, his family will be left with crushing debt.  While we may not be able to alleviate this burden, we can certainly help with the day to day costs that will provide Jan with the opportunity to catch her breath and formulate a strategy.  So I urge each and every one of you that has not already done so to please help this family out in any small manner that you can.  Things are as tight in my household as they are in yours with this difficult market, but the first thing I am doing after depositing the commission check I just earned today is to make a small contribution on behalf of the Slaybaugh family to this friend of a friend.

I implore you to find it in your heart to do the same.

If you are hearing about David's ordeal for the first time, please read this post by Jason Crouch.

Here is the information provided in Jason's initial post which tells you how you can help.

If you are unable to give money right now, but you would like to send a note or card instead, I know that they would be happy to hear that they are in your thoughts and/or prayers.  Any correspondence like this, along with any checks or money orders can be sent to them care of my address, which is below:

Jason Crouch, 20001 Fargo Terrace, Pflugerville, TX  78660

Please make any checks or money orders payable to Jan Wilder.

If you would prefer to send money to them via PayPal, their account is set up under the following email address: jwilder_99@yahoo.com (there is an underscore between "jwilder" and "99"). 

For another, truly ingenious way that was devised to help David and Jan, please read this selfless post from Melissa Grant.