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Updates:December:Phoenix’s condition worsened raising the cost of medicine slightly, which is reflected in the figures below.
Her costs are roughly between $850-$900 a month and we are raising money for one year of treatment and medication. We do need
to exceed the amount you see on the Chipin widget. She also recently suffered the loss of her immune-friendly home, and needs
clothing and shoes. At present she is still experiencing chronic infections and fever, and as soon as this is under control,
she’ll be opening an eBay store with goth/alt/steampunk related items and various vintage and asian home décor items from
a previous boutique in order to cushion all costs and will be donating 10%-20% of the proceeds from that eBay store to one
or two charities of her choice, most likely the New Orleans Restoration Fund and an organization that will send proceeds
to Haiti. Links will be posted on her social networking sites found below and on Twitter (hauntedtearoom).
December:Legendary novelist, photographer, journalist, archivist, and subculture authoritarian Mick Mercer has featured
Phoenix in THE MICK issue 50
and we urge you to read the fascinating interview and article complete
with samples of Phoenix's photography which she will be selling
soon in a gallery website format. The link can be found here: http://www.mickmercer.com/pdfs/the_mick_50.pdf#page=80 . The photo
sales for Mick Mercer and Jody Elliot have all expired. The links for
Jody Elliot are no longer available, she is no longer involved in the
fundraiser, her photos are not donations. Other artists and
photographers are still offering their work for donations including Mick Mercer’s brilliant rare historical goth, deathrock,
postpunk, and subculture photos from live gigs including artists ranging from Adam Ant to Danielle Dax,
which he has compiled in a book. Links to come. For an
offical list of who is/isn’t donating proceeds to this fundraiser,
please visit her myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/phoenixmarieparis
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We are raising funds to get urgently needed medical treatment for our beloved friend, Phoenix Marie.
She has been battling a life-threatening progressive heart valve disease since 2006, when she had her first heart failure and near death experience.
With no insurance to cover her, Phoenix sold almost all of her valuable belongings and clothing and did eBay sales for half a year in order to see a specialist and receive the tests and costly x-rays needed to diagnose her condition.
Her heart disease was a congenital defect (from birth) that was apparently misdiagnosed in childhood as harmless and left unchecked.
Phoenix, a very hardworking full-time corporate manager of 16 years and multi-faceted musician, dancer, photographer, and artist, was very healthy and studied and worked in the health industries for many years before the heart failure occurred. She rarely even experienced the flu or common cold for most of that time, and was always taking care of the people around her: working overtime when others were sick, caring for the elderly and the homeless, and helping counsel troubled teens in various parts of the country. She often apprenticed with professional healers, learning how to counsel chronically ill patients, as she planned to pursue a career in the future in the healing arts.
In the year to come, she will be facing consistent medical treatments with no way to physically work or bring in an income. She is on a pay-as-you-go basis for doctor visits, medical tests and drugs, any hospital visits and travel. Phoenix and her adopted family have singlehandedly financed all of her medical expenses since the initial near death experience in 2006 without insurance coverage. She has experienced three similar life-threatening heart failures since then, one of which caused her to fall and dislocate a cervical vertebra right next to the skull. The vertebra twisted 180 degrees sideways pinching vital nerve bundles going into the brain and the spinal column. As a result, she has suffered excruciating pain, paralysis, memory loss and temporary brain damage which is now becoming permanent as she and her family have run out of funds and she has not finished the needed medical treatment.
Phoenix‘s family found a reputable physician who has offered her a tremendous discount on her treatments and she has been receiving those treatments for two and a half years now. She only has one more year left of treatment and must finish in order to recover fully, but her family has run out of funds and have no other resources apart from donations at this time. Phoenix‘s condition is worsening and it is urgent that she get back into consistent care immediately, as she has not been able to attend her physician for two months.
Her doctor has warned her that the nerve damage in her brain is becoming permanent as she has not been able to afford to continue her treatment. She only has one year of treatment left. The degeneration of the nerves in her brain is similar to patients her doctor treats who are in their 80s and 90s. Phoenix has just turned 40 years old and had led an extremely active lifestyle before this occurred. If she receives one more year of consistent treatment her doctor believes that she will be able to lead a normal life with minimal pain. If not, she will have permanent hearing and brain damage, vertigo, become crippled, end up in a wheelchair and will assuredly die a very painful death at a young age. She has been mostly bedridden for the last three years and has difficulty doing even minor tasks now. Things that so many of us take for granted—such as holding a baby, exercising, dancing, spending time with loved ones or just grocery shopping cause Phoenix extreme, debilitating pain.
We hope you will help us raise these urgently needed funds for Phoenix's medical treatment. Even the smallest of donations could help save her life. The total cost of one year of treatment and medication at present is roughly $850-$900 dollars a month, depending on how many weeks there are in the month, and she needs consistent treatment every month for the next twelve months.
There are several people including Mick Mercer who are holding online photography sales in order to benefit the medical fundraising, and those links will be posted within the week, along with updates on Phoenix’s condition, and information regarding Phoenix’s legal representation.
There are also vintage clothing, gothic, Victorian, Southeast Asian home decor and steampunk related eBay auctions in the works to help fundraise on Phoenix’s behalf, and those links will follow soon.
If you would like to donate all you have to do is go to the chipin widget below and click on the button that says Chipin! and that will take you directly to paypal.
If you live in England or somewhere else in the UK and can only donate in £GBP, please click the donate button below:
Thank you!
Below are Phoenix Marie's web presences: