Let’s Pay Red’s Mortgage

This is my friend Kristen Tucker - I'm truly lucky to have her in my life and because I know her, I get to call her Red. Cool eh!

Red needs our help. She has just been diagnosed with POEMs Disease - a rare and truly debilitating blood disorder. It’s taken doctors over 12 months to diagnose Red’s disease, such is its rarity and insidiousness. Over the past 12 months Red and her wonderful family have been facing one hell of a fight as she has lost control of her legs. As if that isn’t bad enough, she has been in and out of hospital continually to have fluid drained from her spinal chord because the pressure builds so high that it makes her sight go fuzzy and gives her crazy nasty headaches. Recently she has been having the same paralysing symptoms start in her hands as the POEMs spreads. Red’s future is uncertain. She has started chemotherapy and its likely that she’ll also face the daunting ordeal of a stem cell transplant in order to get her life back on track. Facing all of this hardship and trauma is hard enough for anyone, let alone picturing the whole thing without the use of your legs.

That’s where we come in.

Red is a teacher, not just any teacher, an EPIC teacher. She teaches maths at Orewa College north of Auckland. Her kids adore her (that's no small accomplishment.....she teaches maths for goodness sake!!). She works so very hard with each and every one of them. She is bright, bold, kooky and fun. She makes everyone that knows her smile. Red is exactly the person you want teaching your kids. She is in fact such a cool teacher that when she first started to lose mobility and got a scooter the kids at school pimped it out, decorating in bright colours that Red loved.

Despite her love for the kids she teaches and the support from the school, Red has had to give up work. She struggles too much with the pain, and with the paralysis and ongoing hospital visits as well, working is just unachievable.

Red's husband Paul and two teenage sons Felix and Morgan need our help. With Red now without an income (she can’t even get a sickness benefit because her hubby Paul who is also a teacher apparently earns too much). The Tucker family have a mortgage to pay and in Auckland on one teacher income.....well......that’s close to impossible! Let’s help Red and her family by getting their mortgage paid off and ensuring they have one less thing to worry about.

This is an awesome woman and a wonderful loving family. I'm hopeful that if we all dig up a little money we'll be able to get Red the help she needs and save their family home.