Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Raising money for an ailing community member isn’t unusual. Using online fundraising platform Indiegogo to do it is. Raising $18K in 12 hours–also pretty newsworthy.
The latest news about the fund to support Asheville resident John F. Ptak after a diagnosis of kidney cancer? An anonymous donor will match the next $25K raised in the campaign.
The John F. Ptak Relief Fund was started by friends and supporters of Ptak and his wife, author Patti Digh, after Ptak’s diagnosis. According to the fundraising effort on Indiegogo, an online platform that lets people donate to business efforts, creative endeavors and causes they support, the family is uninsured.
Creators of the campaign hope to raise $100K for Ptak’s medical expenses:
Patti and John, and their two daughters, Emma and Tess, can focus on what is really important right now—getting and staying healthy—if we can help alleviate some of the overwhelming financial burden of his medical care. This is how you can help.
Our goal is to raise $100,000. While the exact costs of John’s treatment are unknown, it is clear that they will be extensive. In fact, even though $100,000 is an extraordinary amount of money, it will probably not cover all the specialist consultations, hospitalization, treatment, and surgery expenses that John will incur as an uninsured patient. Every dollar raised will be used to pay medical bills during John’s treatment.
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Money won’t cure cancer. But your support will encourage and allow John to follow an effective course of treatment without stressing over the daunting financial burden on his family. As John said in a recent e-mail, “whatever is . . . collected will be very helpful, because right now everything costs and will wind up costing everything . . . .”
Indigogo link here.
At the time of this post, the campaign has raised nearly $30K towards Ptak’s expenses.
