a signal boost

[starspray]

So my cousin Alanna has been dealing with her own health issues for at least the past year; she went into surgery for a fatty tumor growing around her spinal cord, and came out of that still with the tumor but also with paralysis from her armpits down. She's in a lot of pain, but the worst part is that her current apartment is not at all accessible, and that means she has a very hard time getting to her necessary appointments, and is bedbound most of the time.

She and her family are hoping to remedy this by renovating a small apartment that's attached to Alanna's sister Natalie's house; it's very small and in very rough shape, and they're hoping to renovate it to make it accessible and to add a bathroom and pair of bedrooms on the ground floor, so Alanna can live there with her two kids and be able to actually live in her space--and also Natalie and her family are right there to help out.

They have a GoFundMe set up, in addition to some other fundraising efforts. So if anyone has a few bucks to spare, that would be much appreciated; and if you donate and want to drop a comment with a request/prompt, I'll write you a ficlet.

Comments

[chestnut_pod]

Thanks for the heads-up; I've gone and given a chai. Do you know of Radio Free Monday, run by copperbadge? That can be a good place to spread fundraisers through fandom networks.

[starspray]

Thanks so much for both the donation and the suggestion! I will certainly check it out.

[narya_flame]

Donated <3 very best wishes to them, I hope the fundraiser does what they need it to and they can make her a lovely apartment.

[starspray]

Thank you!! <33

[anerea]

Ai! I'm so sorry to hear about your cousin! Does she (or you) have PayPal? (International credit card transactions are hellishly expensive from here, but I have some funds in my paypal account.)

[starspray]

I don't have a paypal and I haven't seen one anywhere for my cousin, but there is an option to use it on the gofundme instead of a credit card.

[anerea]

Oh, I've looked all over for a paypal option. Is it on another page than from the "donate" link? Because there's only the one option to pay via credit card that I can see. (I did a "find in page" on both pages, just in case, but nothing came up.)

[starspray]

Oh, that's odd. When I click the donate button there's an option to use either paypal or a credit card. But if it's not an option for you that's okay! I appreciate the desire to help <3

[anerea]

I just tried a VPN from the US and it suddenly had the PayPal option above credit card, so it must be a South Africa thing. (PayPal doesn't offer our currency, and there's weird tax laws about it locally, but I've never had it blocked before!) But now it can't authorise the payment, so I'll have to figure that out, but at least I know I'm not going blind or dilly!