Fundraiser supporting Dr. Neil Spector's HS-291

Hello everyone, I hope you're doing well! I am starting this fundraiser for the Texas Lyme Alliance who is focused on raising funds for the clinical study HS-291 of Dr Timothy Haystead, of Duke University, in honor of Dr. Neil Spector. This promising treatment could change the lives of millions of Lyme patients in the world, but it needs funding to be able to complete the research.

Approximately half a million people get diagnosed with Lyme Disease EVERY year, and scientists believe that the problem will only continue to get worse. So it is important that we get ahead of this quiet epidemic before it decimates millions of other lives.  

Here is a little background on why I believe this research is important. In March of 2020 I found a tick on my leg, I lived in Converse, Texas at the time it happened. There was no bullseye rash so I thought I was okay, little did I know that my life was about to fall apart. I went from being active, to not being able to walk or breathe. I became allergic to a lot of common foods, some gave me anaphylaxis. Within the space of a year, I was diagnosed with seven different autoimmune diseases, I was in a wheelchair in excruciating pain, scared and confused about what was wrong. I asked my doctor in the first few months about getting tested for Lyme, but I was told that it doesn't exist in Texas, so I went untested and undiagnosed for years. Unfortunately, my story is not the only one like it. I have met so many others who were misdiagnosed for decades because of that belief, along with other beliefs such as mistaking Lyme for mental illness. Some got tired of all of the hopelessness, gaslighting and pain, so sadly they chose to no longer be here. So now I am here writing to you from my bedroom that I rarely leave, trying to stop this from happening to anyone else.

I am better than I was back then, but it requires me to take many different expensive medications that put a burden on my family, so many months I choose to go without it and suffer. Many choose to undergo treatments overseas that can run more than twenty thousand dollars because there is no effective treatment here that works for everyone. I am waiting for an insurance covered treatment in the US that works because I cannot afford to pay that. I still have Lyme and other co-infections, despite taking multiple long-term antibiotics and alternative treatments. I would love to be rid of this nightmare, and finally be able to go for a walk without feeling like I am going to collapse. Please help this dream that I share with other Lyme patients around the world become a reality, and donate to this fundraiser.

For more information, click on the main fundraiser:

https://www.northtexasgivingday.org/team/Q3c92g