Sometimes being in the photography community is more than just talking to each other about new techniques or sharing new photos. Sometimes it could be something much bigger and much more meaningful. 30 year old New York based photographer Michael Popp is fighting Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, and needs your help to fight it. Michael needs over $100,000 for treatments and drugs, and is nowhere close to this amount right now. Lets all help him and prove this is more than a community - it's a family.
Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children. This type of leukemia causes damage and death by crowding out normal cells in the bone marrow with immature white blood cells, and by spreading to other organs. In children, treatments result in a good chance for a cure. Acute lymphocytic leukemia can also occur in adults, however the chance of a cure is greatly reduced. Mike Popp just turned 30 while getting treatment at Sloan Kettering. Acute lymphocytic leukemia has the ability to be fatal in as little as a few weeks if left untreated.
Mike updates his blog and facebook with news about his treatments, his feelings, his fears and also photos of course. His work and bio can be found on his portfolio.
Lets do it - Help Mike.
Just donated -- thank you fstoppers for helping get the word out. Best wishes to Mike and his family.
Thats so shitty...hope he beats this!
this is awesome the way everyone is helping. besides donations payers go out to you for your recovery and to overcome this
Just made a donation! :)
Just made my donation.
First I didn't get the point why Mike needs that a lot of money today when he is already out of hospital and AFTER all the different treatments he got.
It's because all of this is not covered by a health insurance and he has to pay some bills, right?
Then I really don't understand the resistance in the United States on Barack Obamas health care reform.
OK, there is always a better treatment you can get when you are able to spend a lot of money. But in a case like this I wouldn't have to worry about the costs because everything would have been paid by my health insurance.
I hope that Mike will be completely recovered from his cancer soon!
Thaks to Fstoppers for sharing!
Best wishes
Andreas
Germany
The dark side of the US. If you are not wealthy ... die sucker. Can there be something more embarrassing than to beg from strangers for money since otherwise you will die ? No wealthy country in Europe would expose their people to such inhumanity.
Dear US politicians : Treat every man and every women the same independent of their wealth and richness.
wealth and "richness".. ?
Compared to most EUropean countries, Michael's chances of beating and surviving cancer are much higher in the US than practically anywhere else on the planet. In some Wealthy European nations he may not survive to schedule chemotherapy. Michael, being under 30 could have had a fairly robust insurance policy but he elected (apparently, I don't know for sure but he seems to need help) to roll the dice and not spend what probably would have cost him around $300 a month for a pretty decent plan in NY with comprehensive stop losses.
I pay my own insurance for myself and my family since I contract for a foreign firm.
I think those who want to contribute to help him is the right and human thing to do but you blaming the US and praying to politicians (who in collusion with the medical industry are those who got us in the mess we are in now) for salvation is silly and failing to acknowledge the root problems.
The discussion is not about the quality of the health system (I think the German medical system is on the same level with the US, by the way) but the chance for everyone to participate from it. This is what is making the big difference. We all try to spend or money on things with a bigger fun factor than a health insurance not thinking about the consequences this could have until the moment we are getting really sick. Here everybody is forced to pay for health insurance (50% by employee and 50% by employer, 100% for people like me running their own business) depending on the income but for the same high level of treatment. People with no income are health insured by the government. Children are insured automatically on the contract of their parents without additional costs until education ends and they earn their own money. This means, that approximately 25% of your life you are insured for free.
There is always a better treatment or a better doctor or a better medicine for a special kind of illness somewhere in the world. This would not be covered by our health insurance either. But you can chose additional (!) private insurances covering better special treatments, medicines, etc. if you think this is needed. Or if you are wealthy enough you can pay your bill for it by pulling out you credit card.
I don’t say that our system is perfect. In my eyes it is too much driven by the greedily medical / pharma industry. But the fact that you don’t have to worry about getting a serious disease and that you not have to fear to fall in debt for the rest of your life is a huge advantage in my opinion.