My passion and purpose in life is saving life and limb. That’s why I started the Global PAD Association.

Hear more about my efforts to educate, advocate, and support patients with Peripheral Artery Disease and some of our struggles to secure funding to maintain our Care Access Program (CAP), which provides critical financial relief for patients suffering from this disease that’s more prevalent and deadlier than all Cancers combined, except for lung cancer.

While we are always able to maintain our core mission to provide education, advocacy, and real-time support for patients, which may include appointment preparation, help with second opinions, and our lifestyle modification programs, we are not always able to help every patient with removing financial barriers to timely, effective, life and limb-saving care.

For example, a patient with a prosthetic asked us last week to help with her first month’s rent to get her out of living in a hotel. Her placement in an apartment is dependent upon having the first and last month’s rent. She can only afford one. But our budget doesn’t allow for that. So, she’s stuck with living in a hotel room until she can come up with the money.

Another patient needed what was left of his deductible covered for a limb-saving procedure and needed $750. We didn’t have funds in the Global PAD Association to allot for CAP and cover that, so I covered it out of my own life savings.

Funding CAP is dependent upon independent donations as industry, while supportive of educational programs, has turned down multiple attempts for grants to help us cover co-pays and deductibles, transportation, prescription refills, medical and exercise equipment, as well as healthy food for patients in need.

I talk to Dr. John Phillips, my co-host for our radio program, The heart of Innovation, and Save My Piggies podcast about the Global PAD Association’s success and struggles.