Don't be afraid to ask for help: people like to give
It’s easy when you fall seriously ill to wrap yourself in your own cocoon. It’s understandable that you want to protect yourself when you’re wounded, in danger or simply fearful about what’s happening to you. In this state though it’s easy to become self-absorbed. In this state people limit themselves and their world becomes smaller.
What is too easy to forget, for even the most confident individuals, is that there are always people 'out there' waiting and willing to help. In my case I was told by the hospital that they would refuse to go ahead with my kidney transplant unless we could guarantee that we could fund the aftercare. The aftercare would start from the end of the transplant operation until I was well enough to return home to San Francisco from Cedars Sinai Hospital in LA.
So Karin and I got a friend to film a short five minute video of us explaining why we needed money and that without the money we would not be able to go through with the life saving kidney transplant. There was a miraculous response as more than 150 different individuals donated anything from tiny to huge amounts of money. People I hadn’t spoken to for 35 years chipped in, some who had limited resources were surprisingly generous and one old client even offered to match every donation that came in when we still needed to reach a third of the goal.
We exceeded our goal and were able to move forward with the transplant thanks to the generosity of so many caring donors. The campaign proved to me that it’s OK to ask for help, including financial assistance. Most people like to give. In asking for help, you’re actually giving others an opportunity to enjoy their giving.
