Ray’s Experience With Asking For Help From Giving Kitchen

I was working full time at  Bistro & Pub when everything changed. One day at work, I passed out, hit my head on a keg, and was rushed to the hospital. That’s when I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Not long after, I started having trouble swallowing and noticed a lump in my throat. I pushed for answers, and eventually learned I had stage IV cancer that had taken over the top of my esophagus and spread further. I was immediately put on an aggressive treatment plan—five days of radiation each week and chemotherapy on the weekends.

I couldn’t work, and with rent, bills, and medical expenses piling up, I honestly didn’t know how I was going to make it.

That’s when I turned to Giving Kitchen. I remembered them from a promo we did at the bar, so I reached out. From my very first conversation with my case managers, I could tell they truly cared about me. Within a month, they stepped in with nearly with support—covering a few months of my rent directly to my landlord, as well as my utilities. Their help gave me stability during the hardest time of my life, especially as I later faced an additional cancer diagnosis that required surgery.

At the end of my treatment, things took an even darker turn. I developed pneumonia and kept going to the ER, but they kept sending me home. My mother had to step in and force them to admit me. That was the first time my heart stopped. I woke up weeks later in the ICU with a trach tube, hooked to a ventilator. The pneumonia had turned into a fungal infection I was too weak to fight. Then came one setback after another—an artery burst in my neck, multiple chest tubes, constant emergencies. Every week or two, doctors would call my whole family in because they believed I wouldn’t make it through the weekend, or even the day. But somehow, by some miracle, I did. Someone, somewhere, was looking out for me.