Staff o’ Mike
Leslie
I’m Leslie Boyd. I was Mike’s mom. His life brought me incredible joy, and his death leaves a hole in my heart that will never heal.
I promised Mike before he died that his death would bring about something positive, so I am trying to collect the stories of people who have lost loved ones because they didn’t have insurance and couldn’t get the treatment they needed.
That number is 45,000 a year and doesn’t include the people who die because one in five insurance claims in this country is denied by the insurance companies. The sad thing is that every one of those people meant as much to someone as Mike meant to me and all the other people in his life.
I was a veteran newspaper reporter when I decided to leave and do this advocacy full-time. I covered social justice issues for more than 25 years. I wrote about the issue of health insurance since 1992, when there were only 16 million people who didn’t have health insurance.
Today more than 50 million people don’t have health insurance. Millions more have coverage that leaves them thousands of dollars in debt every time they have any illness that requires hospitalization or surgery.
I want to put faces on these statistics.
Janet
I’m Janet Danforth, designer and webmaster for Life o’ Mike. My design shows different aspects of Mike. The plaid is for the flannel pajama pants he wore most of his last few years. Blues and greens were two of his favorite colors. He enjoyed working on black and white photos in the darkroom when he took a college photography class.
Mike and I were married for nearly seven years. Even though we were divorced, we were still very close. After all, I was his favorite ex-wife. I spent his last few weeks at his bedside helping Leslie take care of him. It’s still difficult for me to realize that he’s really gone. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him and be halfway to the phone to call him before I remember.
To be as young as we were, and facing the possibility of your imminent death on top of college and money struggles is just too much for most people to deal with. When you’re a full-time student just trying to make enough money to pay your rent, expensive medical procedures just aren’t a priority. I wouldn’t wish what Mike went through on my greatest enemy.
That’s why I’m helping Leslie create this site: so no one else has to go through what we did.
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Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a peer support program for people with one or more serious or chronic medical issues or disabilities.
We aim to reduce isolation and fear among people who have conditions, including psychiatric illness, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mild dementia or other cognitive disorder or disability, thereby reducing depression and complications as people learn to improve self-management of their medical conditions.
Patient Pals help alleviate feelings of isolation and frustration. They can help people develop a list of questions to ask the doctor and then accompany the person to the doctor to make sure all the questions are answered, taking notes to be sure the person understands the doctor’s answers.
Our trained volunteers also accompany their “Pals” to art exhibits, movies and walks outdoors, meet for coffee, call to check in and more.
Our Pals have experienced weight loss, improvement in diabetes, HIV, psoriasis, depression and more, just because they have someone who cares about them. Some relationships develop into longer-term friendships; other Pals move on to more independent lives.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.
Life o’ Mike honors Joe Eblen
Life o' Mike presented its first Michael T. Danforth Community Service Award to Joe Eblen at a luncheon on June 8, in the Friendship Hall of First Congregational Church, 20 Oak St., Asheville.
Joe, seen here with Leslie Boyd, left, and his wife, Bobbie, has spent his life helping children and families, both as a coach and game official for more than 60 years, and as founder of Eblen Charities.
Start From Seed
Life o' Mike has a new program- Start from Seed (SFS).
SFS is a volunteer doula program aimed at providing non-medical, comprehensive support to low income, high-risk women and families of Buncombe County focusing on three areas:
1. We help new doulas with certification and training in return for their participation as a volunteer doula for SFS
2. We mentor volunteer doulas with their first few clients
3. Our volunteer doulas provide birth and postpartum doula services to low income, high risk moms, providing support and tools to empower them as a new parent.
A birth doula is a trained and experienced professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to the mother before, during and just after birth; a postpartum doula provides emotional and practical support during the postpartum period.
Start from Seed clients are referred to us from the Buncombe County Department of Health’s Nurse-Family Partnership Program, Western North Carolina Community Health Services, and Mission Hospital. The Program is intended and designed for growing clients’ inner strength and helping them gain empowerment to help them cope with the emotional, physical and mental challenges of childbirth, labor, and motherhood.
Our new moms and their infants have many needs. If you would like to help them get off to a good start, please visit our Start from Seed web site: Start from Seed, or call Program Director Chelsea Kouns at 804-814-9946.
Mrs Boyd
I seen your story on the news last night and was very moved. I know what Mike went through. Im trying to get help for a couple major medical issues and every where I turn I hit a dead end. I’ve filed for SSI and Medicade but I keep getting turned down. I guess they will approve me once Im passed on to be with the Lord. If I can help you in any way let me know.. I would love to do something to help keep Mikes memory alive here in the mountains..
Blessings
George
George, if you live here in Buncombe County, please go to one of the free clinics and see if they can get you help through Project Access. If you’d like, you can e-mail me at lifeomike@gmail.com and I’ll see if I can help you get some care.