A 14-year-old from Angola had to turn to GoFundMe for help paying for cancer treatment after her family’s health insurance denied her claim.
Olivia Stoy’s story is getting national attention after the company wouldn’t cover her bone marrow transplant, but her mother, Megan, says the public came through quickly to raise the $350,000 they needed.
“We are part of a faith-based insurance plan, and when we signed up five years ago, we knew bone marrow transplants weren’t covered, but we (didn’t think) we would need that,” Stoy says. “We had doctors write letters, we spoke to them… the company took a vote and denied covering it.”
The battle’s not over, though, as the family might need more money to cover any additional hospital time if Olivia needs more than 50 days to recover. Olivia has over the past two years battled cancer and has had trouble recovering, so it’s a distinct possibility.
Megan says Olivia is the epitome of courage:
“She is probably more positive than all of us. She’s getting in all of the fun she can possibly get in.”
You can find a link to her GoFundMe page here. An anonymous donor has stepped up to match donations for a while.
