There are 3 days left to finish raising our goal of $30,000! Let's bring this fundraiser home!

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Life changed in an instant.

Melissa Beckwith started running at age 50. On Saturday April 7, 2018, she was was critically injured while running a half marathon in Cottage Grove, OR.

She remembers she made it 10 miles during a storm with high winds. She doesn't remember what happened next. Paramedics found her under a large, dead tree. By the time she arrived in the ER, she was barely conscious. Her skull and neck were fractured, her right arm was crushed, and she had severe bleeding and swelling of her brain. She was intubated and taken to the OR, where a neurosurgeon saved her life by performing an emergency craniotomy, stopping the bleeding and relieving the pressure on her brain. She returned to the ICU on a ventilator with a traumatic brain injury, unconscious, head bandaged, face bruised and swollen beyond recognition.

A compassionate, warm-hearted oncology nurse.

Melissa was born in Thailand. She has been an oncology nurse for over 30 years, many of them at the NIH. I met her in January 2017, when she became my nurse at a rural cancer clinic in Lebanon, OR. I was struck by her warm smile and obvious love for her patients and her work. Patients adore her; she tirelessly advocates for them, attending to their emotional as well as their medical needs. She is dedicated and stays long hours, never leaving until every patient’s need has been attended to. She is radiant with laughter and positive energy no matter how busy or difficult the day. Typical of her happy, free spirit, she had to rush out during a free moment to go stand in a field of yellow flowers and have her picture taken.

Why she needs our help

Melissa was providing insurance for her husband John while he followed his passion to open his own practice as a lymphedema therapist. He was planning to launch in May. Now he is spending his days and nights at his wife's bedside. Although she is making good progress, Melissa has a long way to go. It's unknown if she will ever be able to return to her career as an oncology nurse. She has months of rehabilitation ahead. She will not be making an income during that time. And medical care in the US is expensive. I've chosen a goal of $20,000 to help pay her out-of-pocket costs and continue insurance coverage (through COBRA if necessary), continue rehab to meet her full potential for recovery, obtain transportation for medical and rehabilitation appointments, and buy any needed adaptive equipment.

Contribute what you can, and leave a comment to lift Melissa's spirits!

Thank you for helping someone who has spent her life helping others.