Bessie Jones

 

Bessie is a mother of five children, including a set of twins, and a grandmother to 13 children.
Bessie was sick for a year and a half before she was properly diagnosed. She was experiencing intense joint pain, was then diagnosed with sciatic nerve damage and told she needed a hip replacement. In spite of her pain, she continued working as a nursing assistant and housecleaner. Her insurance would not cover a hip replacement so she applied for indigent insurance through the state of Georgia. Bessie was approved and finally referred to a specialist who suspected the problem was not in her hip and performed an MRI.
Previous to this doctor’s visit, Bessie had been in California caring for a friend who had Rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancerous tumor of the muscles that are attached to the bones. After the MRI, the doctor originally thought Bessie might have the same illness, which was devastating to her given she had just seen her friend endure it. However, she was finally diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
Bessie soon got to the point where she could no longer walk properly and had to quit her job of 20 years. She received many rounds of chemotherapy and waited six months for insurance approval before she could start planning for a transplant.
Bessie is scheduled to receive a transplant in September 2014. She needs a new place to live in order to recover properly from the transplant. She is teaming up with the Bone Marrow & Cancer Foundation to set up a One-to-One Fund and help ease the financial burden.
Click here to contribute to Bessie’s One-to-One Fund
Or you can send a check, payable to the Bone Marrow & Cancer Foundation.
Be sure to include Bessie’s name on the front of the check.
Send check to:
the Bone Marrow & Cancer Foundation
515 Madison Avenue, Suite 1130
New York, New York 10022