Stranger donates $148,000 for woman's treatment
Guardian angels come in all shapes and forms.
Ms Stephanie Headley's guardian angel was a man wearing large sunglasses, a cap and his jacket zipped all the way up.
On July 3, he turned up at her home and without saying a word, handed Ms Headley an envelope with a bank draft for Canadian $128,000 (S$148,000). And then he smiled, turned away and left.
Ms Headley, a Canadian single mother of four, told CTV news: "I just started crying. I dropped to the floor, and I dropped my (oxygen) tank and I just collapsed."
Ms Headley, who lives in Ottawa, needs the money for a potentially life-threatening disease.
In 2002, she was told she had systemic scleroderma. It's an autoimmune disease that hardens the skin and internal organs, reported CBC News.
According to her fundraising page at YouCaring.com, she must use an oxygen tank because she is left with less than half her lung capacity.
CBC News reported that she learned about a stem cell treatment that had worked on other autoimmune conditions such as lupus and multiple sclerosis.
EXPENSIVE TREATMENT
But treatment was expensive at US$125,000 (S$155,000) and would require her to travel to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Her family tried to raise money online from May and her fundraising page said she needed Canadian $40,000.
Ms Headley also set up a separate fundraising page online but in total, they only managed to raise about Canadian $13,000 out of the $80,000 they had asked for.
But what happened on July 3 gave her hope when a stranger called her and then showed up at her front door ten minutes later.
She only went public with the donation when bank staff confirmed the draft was real.
She starts three months of treatment from Sept 22, QMI Agency reported.
"It's a miracle," her father Peter told the news service. "When people need help, citizens of this city step up."
Media reports said the fundraising pages remain active because the family still need funds to pay for living expenses, travel, as well as antibiotics and anti-nausea medication, according to her page on YouCaring.com.
Source: Facebook, YouTube, CTV News, CBC News, QMI Agency
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