Stand with Karen: Facing Cancer and Stroke

Story

SOMETIMES IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO PRESERVE A LIFE

“Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.” – Jesse Jackson

We have lost so many of our schoolmates and classmates recently, some of whom would have lived longer had they received aid. In a conversation with Karen Holgate-Morgan (Class of 1976 – Titchfield High School), my heart moved me to seek assistance for her. After hearing her story, I persuaded her to share it with the “Village,” and she humbly agreed. If, like me, you feel moved to help her, please contribute, no matter how small… any amount will be greatly appreciated and will be useful to preserve the life of one of our own.

LET’S HELP TO PRESERVE HER PRECIOUS LIFE

THIS IS KAREN’S STORY IN HER OWN WORDS:

“My name is Karen Holgate Morgan. I am 65 years old. This is my story… I lost my mother in August 2024, and before I could grieve her death, I found myself with a huge dilemma. My health began to fail in 2013, when I had both a heart attack and a stroke, and in that same year, my mom had a heart attack.

In December 2024, I was diagnosed with cancer. I was counseled that it is the most aggressive form of cancer. Therefore, it would require equally aggressive treatment and follow-up treatments. I was visiting my son in the US when I got my cancer diagnosis. I tried to get care there with any help we could get from the state, but that request was rejected, and so my family had to draw on our resources to pay to get the surgery in the US. Subsequently, I came home and sought follow-up care.

I am in treatment now, but chemotherapy is busting my chops.

So far, I have received the first chemotherapy treatment, and every imaginable side effect has affected me. But the worst of all is that I got a stroke and at the same time, I developed a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) in my leg on the 24th of April 2025.

To reduce my risk of dying from a blood clot, my doctor recommended surgery: a filter was inserted in the vein to strain out any clot that might start moving to the brain or lungs while I am being treated to dissolve the clot. The management of DVT requires long-term treatment and is high risk. So with all of the cancer issues, this DVT is another curveball that we didn’t see coming. This, of course, means added expenses that we could not anticipate or have planned for.

But why am I in this position to be telling this story? COVID-19 came in 2020, and since then, I have been unable to find work. I lost my job in 2018. I floated around doing whatever I could to earn an income. During that period, the company I was with, which was a new startup, closed its doors. While I was just being recruited for another job, COVID hit, and that opportunity went begging. I then joined up with a multilevel marketing company, and they disappeared. I spent the time during COVID learning to trade, but ran out of capital before I got any successful trading. My employment history was not one that helped my cause, because I was an independent contractor for the last 20-odd years, and I have no pension to receive now that I am at retirement age.

I am facing bankruptcy now without any health insurance or the ability to get any because of pre-existing conditions, and my current situation. I have a little personal savings that I created for myself, which is fast being depleted by medical expenses. My husband’s pension is serving for the two of us to just get by now. His savings are also being eroded by my medical costs. Frankly, I am indebted now to my doctors and the hospital.

Anyone who has had cancer knows the cost of care – what with the drugs, the professional services, the facilities, and the side effects, knows it is brutal. With my medical history, in order to survive, the treatment requires additional medical care to manage my other issues. For instance, I have had to do CT scans, ultrasounds, MRIs, many blood tests, and surgeries. I now have to live on expensive blood thinners! Just to put it in perspective, my most recent MRI showed nine (9!) infarctions/strokes on my brain. It is only through God’s grace and favor that I am still alive.

I find myself stressing about my finances every day now, and that is unfavorable for my blood pressure. I am asking my friends out there, far and near, for your kind assistance to cover some of these costs to keep me alive.
Thank you and God bless you.”

Personally, I find Karen’s story, her choice to be vulnerable, to expose her life experience, and appeal to us for aid, compelling. Remember, the words of Jackson: “Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.”

Dear friends, let us pool our resources to lift up Karen today. Please make your donation to her GoFundMe now! Remember, no amount is too small… It can be 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 100, or 1000. Give generously.

LET US PRESERVE HER PRECIOUS LIFE.

Organizers :

Fleurette Harris is organizing this fundraiser.