By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
At the age of 64, Mike Fisher finds the brave new world of computers a forbidding frontier.
Which is just one reason why the GoFundMe account set up by his former students to help him with the expenses associated with a life-or-death double-lung transplant at Toronto General Hospital is almost unknown on social media.
And why it sits at about $2,000, which is about 2% of what is estimated he will need for the medications and the many weeks he and a partner will have to live in Toronto both in advance of the surgery and afterwards for up to eight months.
“They want me there well before my surgery so I can finish up testing, things like that. And they have to have my support person there as well,” Fisher said in a recent interview.
Then there’s the post-operative monitoring. And while he will be hospitalized, his support person will not.
“We have to pay for lodging in advance,” he explained.
“If I can’t figure out a way to be able to do that, then I won’t get the transplant.”
Fisher was born and raised in this area, moved out to Alberta, raised a family, then returned to his home community – at which time some local service club members suggested he start a driving school. And in 2010, the Mike Fisher Driving School began, launching many a young driver onto local roads with confidence and an awareness of safety.
In a breathless voice that relays his condition as much as his words do, Fisher boiled down the simple choice he is faced with – find a way to afford all that goes with a lung-transplant operation, or sit at home and wait to die.
“It’s sad to think people are in my position, that there’s no way they can afford to do this, which I think is ridiculous in this country,” he said.
“They sent me a list of what they call short-term housing for people that are going through the transplant, but the cheapest one is $140 a day.”
Throw in food, transportation, parking and medication, he summed up – the GoFundMe page lists it all and aspires to a fundraising goal of $71,950.
And the ironic thing is that not being able to afford his medication for the past year already, following years of COPD and several bouts with COVID, is one reason he is so ill. But at $500 a month, he couldn’t afford both the medication and his oxygen.
“Those were my only options, so I had to do what I had to do,” he recalled.
“I was really blown away to find out that this is how it works – if you are not wealthy, you are not going to survive.”
Needing to accept help does not come easily to Fisher. He has always been the one to extend the helping hand.
Even in recent years, neighbour Kari Mustard said, that has been the case.
“He has been a large part of our community for so many years, teaching our youth to drive and keeping them safe by giving them the skills they need to be responsible, safe drivers.
“Everyone knows and recognizes that familiar blue car as it drives around town with our most precious cargo inside, our children,” Mustard said.
And Fisher has accepted a request from Rosewood Gardens retirement home to do a session for seniors facing the challenge of renewing a license at the age of 80 and over with today’s MTO requirements.
“I’m just supposed to be resting and taking care of myself, but how do you say no when somebody asks for help,” he admitted.
When it comes to helping someone, Fisher has always been on the other side of the table as a Lead Crisis Worker for Community and Family Services in southern Alberta, helping families and children in distressing times. But his own troubles have given him some understanding of what they were going through.
Accepting the help of his former students was not in the cards for him at first.
“There was a young boy here in Northumberland that was battling a disease, and he had a GoFundMe. I told everybody there was no way I was going to do it and take any possible funding away from that young boy for me – that’s something I couldn’t live with myself doing that,” he insisted.
“But now, unfortunately, I really have no choice but to try.”
However, along with being short on funds, Fisher is short on computer skills. A self-described old-school pencil-and-paper guy, he often has to hire someone to help him with the computer work required for his transplant that once would have been handled on paper forms.
And without social-media accounts to get his GoFundMe account into the public eye, there it sits at about 2%.
The nature of a lung transplant is that there is no way of knowing in advance when a suitable organ will be available. But Fisher has a relatively high priority because of his background in teaching and his previous healthy habits, and they are estimating a four-month wait.
There is also no way of knowing where that GoFundMe will be at that time, but for Fisher, the answer is literally a matter of life and death.
E-transfers are also available at hs.mike@hotmail.com
(Mike Fisher is no relation to Today’s Northumberland Pete Fisher)
