How to Turn $7 Into $1,000 Before Christmas......While Helping a Desperate Family in
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However, on Sunday 29 October, while celebrating my 40th birthday, fate dealt us a cruel blow. Tony had to be rushed back to hospital after a violent fit, to be treated for meningitis (a viral infection of the brain). Normally, this is simply treated with antibiotics. Being an alternative health freak, he would never have agreed to the intravenous drip, but he had little choice, and was in any case completely unable to resist. The drugs were injected. Instead of seeing the expected improvement 8 days later, things were about to get a lot worse. Turns out that the skull fracture was not completely sealed in Thailand - even though the surgeons were totally professional - and a further air leak caused the cranial infection, as well as air pockets in the skull - never a good thing. The neuro-surgery performed in Bangkok, Thailand - in which his skull was sawed open, his brain moved aside and body fat from his leg used to seal the fracture from inside - had to be redone. As you can imagine, a 62-year old brain doesn't take kindly to massive trauma in a high speed head-on collision, followed by two invasive surgical procedures to arguably the most sensitive part of the human body. Not pleasant at all. But let's take a break from the drama just for a moment. There was plenty of good that come out of the accident:
I mention this so that you know that we, as an extended family, are not enslaved by a victim mentally. All sixteen of us - from differing religious backgrounds - believe that every event in life, good or bad, is simply part of a giant jigsaw puzzle making up our life purpose - every event has a definite purpose. For most of us, this has been a huge wake-up call which, while unpleasant, was perhaps sorely needed. However, funds (and facilities) have completely run dry. It's embarrassing to admit, but that's reality. Tony lived a somewhat reclusive lifestyle, and had no medical or even car insurance. Crazy as it sounds, that's the situation. As a family, we all had to bury our hatchets and come to his aid, at a time our father really needed us. But his latest hospitalization has really left us between a rock and a hard place. Time was of the essence, and we went ahead with the expensive neuro-surgery on faith, knowing full-well that none of us could afford the hospital bill. Credit cards have already been maxed-out, and excess assets (including my dear sister's house) have been sold to cover the Thailand expenses. These latest unexpected events came like a thief in the night, when we least expected them. And hence the plea for help. We need US$65,000 to settle current hospital bills and a number of legal and property matters in Thailand - a seemingly impossible figure to achieve in a short space of time. But with your small contribution of just $7, and those of many others, this can be done. And we don't simply want to sponge off you either. Here's how we want to gratefully acknowledge your generous help... My sister and I have spent the last 12-18 months before the accident pouring our heart and soul into writing two separate books, on topics we are both passionate about.
But in addition to the two life-changing manuals, we ALSO want to give you the chance to win $1,000 on December 4th, which you can use towards your festive season shopping. Here's how it works... Every $7 donation will receive BOTH of the manuals mentioned above, by immediate digital download. We accept payment by credit card and Paypal. As soon as your payment is received, your email address will be automatically captured into a database. At midday (EST) on December 4th, a small computer program will randomly select 5 (five) different email addresses from the database. If you are one of the five lucky winners, we'll immediately send US$1,000 to your Paypal account, or, if you do not have one, we will arrange an electronic bank transfer (this will take a few days to clear - Paypal is immediate). So you have five chances of winning $1,000, just by helping us out with a $7 donation. And we're taking this even further... If, because of the community's generosity, we raise more than the $65,000 required to settle the currently outstanding expenses, ALL of the additional funds will be pooled into the random draw. We certainly don't want to be abuse the community's generosity by taking more than we need. So, for example, if we raise $70,000 before December 4th, we'll draw the promised 5 winners PLUS another 5 winners who stand to win the surplus $5,000 - that means ten chances to win $1,000 for your donation of $7. I hope this interests you, because we could certainly use the help. We are desperate, and want to give you every possible reason to help us out. Let's summarize:
Sound reasonable? Excellent - we really appreciate your generosity. Late Breaking UpdateSince we started asking for help, we've been blown away by the number of generous Good Samaritans who want to help with MORE than $7. We couldn't believe it, and we certainly didn't want to be ungrateful and turn them away. So here's what we've done... We've tried to take into account the fact that everyone who reads this plea has varying abilities to help with our plight. So we've come up with a sliding scale of ways in which we can thank you for your generosity. The table below should explain it well: Here are 4 different levels of assistance you can provide, all of which will be humbly and gratefully acknowledged. Depending on how generously you can help, we want to reward you in more than fair proportion:
This has been a longer-than-expected note, respectfully submitted by someone uncomfortable asking for help. I thank you sincerely for reading. More tangible thanks cannot be extended right now, but know that the Universe will recognize your contribution in her divinely inspired time and manner.
Thank you so much. With deepest gratitude,
PS. I realize you have no idea who I am - I could be any Internet con man. To set your mind at rest, I have invested more than 3 years in helping others online (but not in an IM sense). Before considering assisting, please perform your own due diligence by doing a Google search on my name - I am comfortable there are no negative comments or skeletons in the closet. I've also listed a number of pages below which will give you an idea of how much I've freely given over the years (as an explanation, I also use the pseudonym of Markus Hart):
PPS. Without your help, it will be impossible to raise the required US$65,000 to settle my father's recent hospital expenses. Please extend your help using these suggestions. |
