Friends Continue Campaign To Benefit Ill WHS Alumna
WESTFIELD -- Friends and former classmates of a Westfield High School graduate suffering from the autoimmune disease scleroderma are mounting a final push to collect the remaining $50,000 necessary to pay for her stem cell transplant this month – a procedure her doctor maintains is needed to save her life. Michele Marron-Meyerhoff, a member of the Class of 1959 now living in Cranford, has sustained severe lung damage and needs oxygen around the clock. She already has incurred $2.5 million in medical bills and needs $160,000 for the operation, operation, which involves removing her stem cells, cleansing them and reinfusing them into her body. The fundraising effort, which already has resulted in donations of $110,000, was launched because her insurance carrier has refused to pay for the transplant – contending it is an experimental procedure. Response to Ms. Marron- Meyerhoff's plight has been heartening to her friends and family and has generated an outpouring of donations both large and small, according to the committee spearheading the fundraising campaign. Members of the committee expressed appreciation to the hundreds of people who have already responded and encouraged others to make a contribution as well. Contributions can be made by check or VISA, Mastercard or American Express to the National Foundation for Transplants, N.J. Stem Cell Fund, 2560 Route 22, P.O. Box 208, Scotch Plains, N.J. 07076-1529. To contribute online, please visit transplants.org, click on Patients We Help and type Marron in the search box. All donations made either to the Scotch Plains Post Office box or to the Internet address will exclusively benefit Ms. Marron-Meyerhoff and are tax-deductible. For more information, please call Barbara O'Desky, fundraising chairwoman, at (732) 748-1485 or Gene Dillard, publicity chairman, at (609) 871-4267. 


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