Some people feel philanthropy is only about foundations donating lots of money, but that’s only one part. Philanthropy is about people giving their time, help and care to causes they support, making the world a better place to live in. Philanthropic activities come in many forms, some people choose to contribute a huge sum of money to charity or create a park for the community. Some like to create facilities for recreation or provide scholarships for needy students. People love to hate rich people because they are often unaware of how the rich quite often use their fame and fortune for philanthropic purposes. The following is a list of 25 such outrageously rich people that understand the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility.” In no particular order:
1) Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett is no stranger to humble beginnings. As a boy, he delivered newspapers and filed his first tax return at the age of 13, claiming a deduction of $35 for his bicycle. Under the tutelage of guru Benjamin Graham, Buffett studied value investing at Columbia and went to be one of the greatest business minds of our time. America’s much-loved investor and the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway ranked in second place on The World’s Billionaires of 2007.
In his late age, Buffett has made a $31 billion commitment to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will sponsor efforts to improve education in the U.S. and health and standards of living worldwide. He has also allocated billions to autonomous family foundations like Howard G. Buffett Foundation, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and NoVo Foundation that support causes from worldwide conservation to reproductive health.
2) Donald Bren
Born and brought up in Los Angeles and then Newport Beach, California, Donald Bren obtained a degree in business administration and economics at the University of Washington where he also opted for graduate studies in the business school. He founded the Bren Company to build homes in Orange County in 1958 and worked day and night to a $4 billion valuation.
He is among the state’s most charitable philanthropists, directing his contributions so as to have a significant impact on research and education, as well as to support the conservation of species and natural habitat like the Irvine Ranch. Besides gifting $20 million to fund elementary fine arts, science and music programs at Irvine schools, he discreetly donated properties to retirement communities and schools.
3) Bernard Osher
Married but childless, Bernard Osher, a self-made millionaire, co-founded Golden West Financial in 1963 with his sister Marion and her husband, Herbert Sandler. Having already contributed over $700 million into the Bernard Osher Foundation that supports higher education, arts and integrative medicine in his native Maine and the San Francisco Bay region, Osher hopes to live long enough to be able to donate his entire fortune to similar causes.
Nearing his eighties, he operates a scholarship program for people who have crossed 50 and thanks to the Bernard Osher Foundation, the needs of older learners who always wanted to learn for personal satisfaction and joy have been met through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes across the U.S.
4) Alfred Mann
Having founded as many as 11 biomedical companies, Mann’s net worth exceeds $2.2 billion according to recent estimates. What does Mann plan to do with all that money? He hopes to put his wealth into biomedical research towards a healthier future for all of mankind.
The biotech entrepreneur has been instrumental in giving to the world some of the greatest advances in medicine like the Pacesetter pacemakers, cochlear implants, Minimed insulin pumps, Second Sight prosthetic retinas and Advanced Bionics neurostimulators. His latest efforts are being directed towards the research and development of an inhalable from of insulin, and cancer research. He works 90 hours each week and says he will give away his whole fortune to medical research and charity.
5) Michael Dell
Founder of Dell Computers, Michael attended the University of Texas with hopes of becoming a doctor. He soon deserted that goal and started selling computer equipment at the age of 19. Starting with just $1000 to his name, he created a more than $20 billion empire by the age of 40.
From 1999, his wife, Susan and he have contributed over $1.2 billion towards education and child development programs in Texas and post Hurricane Katrina, they gave $5 million to help the storm victims. They also contributed generously to micro-finance lenders in six biggest cities of India, making an effort to lift million of slum dwellers out of poverty. The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation is dedicated to making the lives of children better in the United States of America as well as internationally.
6) George Kaiser
Born in a family that had fled Nazi Germany and settled in Tulsa, the Kaiser family history isn’t one we would wish on anyone. Turning his family’s past into a motivating force, George Kaiser successfully received a bachelor’s degree and MBA from Harvard University. He then speedily took over the family owned Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. and then expanded into banking and real estate.
At the same time, through George Kaiser Family Foundation, he fights child poverty and serves as benefactor to the over 5,000 Jewish people in Oklahoma. Most often contributing quietly and without fanfare, Kaiser supports causes like public health campaigns and social services that help lessen poverty and improve living conditions for the average person. His Tulsa-based foundation has contributed in millions of dollars to improve and develop the economy in the local community. Kaiser says he plans to give more “until I die with one dollar left, assuming I can get the timing just right.”
7) Ruth Lilly
Ruth Lilly is the only living heir to the Eli Lilly fortune started out by Colonel Eli Lilly, her great-great grandfather. In November 2002 Lilly pledged $100 million worth of stock to the Poetry Foundation, a small nonprofit organization in Chicago that publishes Poetry Magazine, and another gift as large the Arts in Washington. From 1986 every year a living U.S. poet has been awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize of $100,000 for extraordinary accomplishments throughout his life. Lilly also supports health education, health care, historic preservation and youth programs.
8 ) Michael Bloomberg
The 108th Mayor of the New York City, Bloomberg was taught as very early the value of working hard and public responsibility. He went to John Hopkins University, paying his fees through loans and working as a parking lot attendant in summer, going on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School and opening Bloomberg LP in 1981. Usually an anonymous donor, Bloomberg contributes around $140 million every year towards education, public health, arts and social services in New York. He has contributed to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and has already bought a townhouse for the foundation he wants to setup on the Upper East Side.
9) Veronica Atkins
Among the wealthiest women in the country, Mrs. Atkins, wife of the former Robert C. Atkins, is also said to be one of its most charitable, and has been featured among the top few philanthropists by Newsweek, BusinessWeek and the New York Times. Despite a traumatic childhood in which she fled Russia, she still supports a few Russian orphanages. When her husband, Dr. Robert Atkins passed away in 2003, she vowed to carry on with his mission to prevent disease and manage good health. She renamed her late husband’s private charity to the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation to show her dedication and increased the gifted professorships to eight hoping to see more results towards wiping out diabetes and obesity.
10) Jeff Skoll
Jeff Skoll was the founding president and second employee of eBay, the internet auction firm. With a fortune estimated to be more than $5 billion, he is known for using his wealth for charitable purposes and to setup Participant Productions, his autonomous movie production company. Skoll has setup a center for social entrepreneurship at the Oxford University where he holds a world forum every year on how to use good principles in business for the betterment of society.
He has also given the charitable Skoll Foundation $250 million worth of eBay stock, which the foundation uses to make grants of over $30 million per year. Skoll’s largest contribution has been $7.5 million to gift the first Canadian double degree program to gifted students; they earn Bachelors in Engineering and MBA in An 80-month program at the Toronto University.
11) Ted Turner
CNN founder Turner has not only gained success in cable television, but in real estate: Owning several ranches in America has made him the biggest single landowner in the U.S. Besides staying actively involved in his fast expanding Ted’s Montana Grill chain of restaurants, Turner devotes his time to making the world a safer, better place to live in.
He has pledged $1 billion to the UN and supports Nuclear Threat Initiative and Better World Fund foundations that he created to reduce nuclear weapons and make people aware of the UN’s programs. His other philanthropic interests include Turner Foundation, Capital Planet Foundation and the Turner Endangered Species Fund.
12) Bernard Marcus
Born to Jewish-Russian parents who immigrated to Newark, Bernard wished to become a doctor but settled for a pharmacy degree due to financial constraints and worked for his father, a cabinet-maker. Bernard Marcus co-founded Home Depot with Arthur Blank in 1978.
Through the Marcus Foundation, he funded the $290 million aquarium in his hometown of Atlanta. He founded and funded the Marcus Institute, a well-known center providing complete services to children having developmental disabilities. The foundation has no endowment but gets funding every year from Marcus, who wants to give away his fortune while he is still living.
13) Robert Meyerhoff
After graduating as a civil engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Robert Meyerhoff joined the family construction business that he later left to setup Henderson-Webb, managing property and construction. With his wife, he developed an exceptional collection of post-World War II art worth $300 million that they have willed to the National Gallery of Art in Washington after his death.
Though the Meyerhoffs have contributed widely to education, the most noteworthy of all is the Meyerhoff Scholars Program created in 1988 at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County funding science and math scholarships to black students.
14) Paul Allen
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has made considerable donations to human services and health related organizations. He setup the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation in 1986 through which he grants about $30 million each year. A student of Washington State University, he donated to its music school. He donated even more to the University of Washington for a new library and a center for visual arts named after each parent. He is also a top contributor at $14 million of the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering. His $100-million brain science institute will help sort out neurological disorders. The foundation also funds art and culture events, health, youth, community development and human services.
15) Thomas Monaghan
Entrepreneur Tom Monaghan founded the Domino’s Pizza chain in 1960. Thirty-eight years later and millions of dollars later, he sold it and gradually started devoting his time and money to Catholic philanthropy and political causes. His Vatican visit to see the Pope deepened his faith and he soon setup Ave Maria Radio, the Ave Maria List pro-life political action committee and the Thomas More Law Center, a law firm aimed at defending Christians’ rights in public interest.
His foundation also fights poverty in South and Central America. His private Ave Maria Foundation finances Catholic education, community projects, Catholic media and other Catholic charities which include a school in Michigan and the $250-million Ave Maria University centered on Catholic values and having a capacity of 6,000 students.
16) Thomas Boone Pickens, Jr.
An American businessman,T. Boone Pickens chairs the BP Capital Management hedge fund and has has been a well-known takeover operator since the 1980s. A football fan, he has donated $165 million to the athletics department of Oklahoma State University; the amount invested in the hedge fund is estimated to cross $300 million.
He has generously donated to the American Red Cross and the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and is a volunteer for Meals on Wheels. Pickens has been financing the Stillwater campus of Oklahoma State University (OSU), his alma mater. This year Pickens gave $100 million dollars towards academics at the OSU. He has already donated over $700 million to charity.
17) J. K. Rowling
Named by Forbes as the first person to become a billionaire (in U.S. dollars) by writing books, this British children’s writer setup the Volant Charitable Trust, to help women and children fight poverty and social discrimination. It has a yearly budget of £5.1 million. The fund also donates to organizations that help children, single parent families and multiple sclerosis research.
She is president of One Parent Families, a nonprofit in the U.K. that educates, supports and advocates for single parents. A single parent, she has been among the organization’s main ambassadors and supporters from 2000. Rowling thinks that when one receives a lot more than one requires, one has a moral responsibility to do the wise thing with it and donate intelligently.
18) Oprah Winfrey
Chairman of Harpo Productions, Oprah Winfrey is an American television host and media magnate. The Oprah Winfrey Show, her talk show that has garnered international acclaim and won several Emmy awards, is rated at the top in television history. She is an Academy Award-nominated actress, a magazine publisher and a book critic.
Every year, Winfrey personally gives about $50 million to educate children, women, and families. She recently opened a youth center in her Mississippi hometown. She enhances her power of giving through her public charity, Oprah’s Angel Network, through which audience members get funded scholarships, women’s shelters and youth centers. She is among America’s top 50 most generous philanthropists, having contributed an approximate $303 million.
19) George Soros
George Soros was born in 1930 in Budapest, Hungary and immigrated to England in 1947, at the age of 17. After working as a restaurant waiter and a railroad porter, he graduated from the London School of Economics.
A global financier, George Soros founded and chairs a network of foundations that encourage the formation of open democratic societies based on market economies, the rule of law, transparent and accountable governance, respect for human rights and freedom of the press. He has been an active philanthropist since 1979, when he gave funds to assist black students attend University of Cape Town in apartheid South Africa.
Soros has donated over $6 billion, out of which $742 million has been directed to projects within the U.S.
20) Johns Hopkins
A wealthy entrepreneur and abolitionist from 19th century Baltimore, Hopkins is famous for the philanthropic creation of institutions that carry his name. Johns Hopkins died on Christmas Eve of 1873 leaving no heirs and $7 million, most of it in Baltimore & Ohio Railroad stock to setup his institutions. At the time this was the biggest single contribution made to educational institutions ever.
As per his request, the Johns Hopkins Colored Children Orphan Asylum was setup first in 1895 followed by Johns Hopkins University, the Johns Hopkins Press (longest running American academic press), Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in 1889, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1893.
21) Paul Newman
In a career spanning 45 years, Newman’s face can be instantly recognized, due to his motion pictures and his natural foods brand. He has become a successful businessman like his father, having established his own food company along with writer friend A. E. Hotchner. Newman turned into a champion race car driver and is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest person in history to win the Rolex 24-hour endurance race. Over the last several years he has donated over $90 million to charity turning himself into a generous philanthropist.
22) Andrew Carnegie
Born in a poor Scottish family that immigrated to the U.S., Carnegie became an influential and leading businessman in the American steel industry. His is a real “rags to riches” story. He is remembered today as an industrialist, millionaire, and philanthropist.
Carnegie believed that the wealthy have a compulsion to return to society, so he gave away most of his fortune to causes like peace and education. He retired in 1901 at age 66 as the world’s richest man. In 1902 he setup the Carnegie Institution to sponsor scientific research and pension fund for teachers by donating $10 million. He also donated $125 million to a foundation called the Carnegie Corporation to help colleges and schools.
23) Percy Ross
Born to poor immigrants from Latvia and Russia, Ross made a fortune producing plastic film and trash bags. After giving away over 1,000 bicycles at a children’s holiday party at the Minneapolis Convention Center in the late 1970s, Ross came up with the idea of doling out cash to his syndicated column readers.
$30 million and 17 years later, he closed his wallet saying he felt richer than before having achieved his goal and given it all away. Through his column he raised money for organ transplants, helped pay for recreational centers and gave away dollars with his simple wisdom.
24) Larry Stewart
A millionaire, Stewart became known as Secret Santa for roaming the streets come December and giving money to people. Stewart, who gave $1.3 million over 26 years was in the spotlight when he exposed himself as Secret Santa a few months before he succumbed to esophageal cancer, hoping to inspire others. His giving commenced in 1979 when he was at a drive-in restaurant feeling sorry for himself for being fired from his job just before Christmas, the second time in a row. It was cold and he felt sorry for the carhop who didn’t have a warm enough jacket, making just nickels and dimes. After that he often handed out $100 bills. He also contributed to community causes in Kansas City and hometown Bruce.
25) Roy M. Huffington
Houston businessman, Huffington began his career as a geologist for the Humble Oil Company and later served as an ambassador to Austria. He founded his own oil and gas firm and setup the Huffington Foundation that has given millions to Texas academic institutions and charities. He was also chairman of the New York-based Asia Society in the 1980s for over seven years.
With his wife, Phyllis, he setup the Huffington Center on Aging in 1988 at the Baylor College of Medicine that does research and delivers health care to tackle the needs of the aging making it one of the best centers on aging world-wide. He was a guiding member of the Baylor College of Medicine Board of Trustees for 20 years.
And Finally: Bill and Melinda Gates
Having already covered philanthropist colleagues Warren Buffet, Michael Dell, and Paul Allen, how could we forget Bill Gates? Though he is still widely known as a ruthless businessman and a technology industry visionary, his legacy will be a very different one. Much like Rockefeller before him, Bill Gates has all but retired from the life that brought him fame and fortune and has decided to dedicate his life along with his wife, to helping the billions of less fortunate people.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the world’s largest transparently operated private foundation in the world and has an endowment of almost $40 billion.
Tax write-off, only a fool wouldn’t be a philanthropists if he/she was rich.
Tell em’ to skip the Tax-write off, then we can all be proud, otherwise, it’s BS.
i agree with lots of methods,i myself like to start a small business but i lack money in this area. with assistance i would return benifets.thats my great responsibilitie. thanks.
I have the same question you get probably 1000K a day. How do I approach someone for a grant? I have tried before but with no success. Every time I’ve tried they want money up front to proceed so I go no further. I don’t believe an actual grant opportunity would request money before proceeding. I’m in a tough spot right now. I’ve lost my job, found out three weeks ago I havae breast cancer and my home is in dire need of a roof, insulation & windows. All of this can be verified to you if need be. Please respond. I need your help! Thank you, Barbara
My wife and I have a small manufacturing business in Nebraska that we started from our kitchen table and built it up to 23 employees at one point. In 2002 we had a fire and lost 100% to the ground. With a small insurance check and loans and a very small building we come back. In 2005 we moved to a larger facility and landed a huge account which turned into about 75% of our sales. Overnight we went from 3 to 23 employees and lots of over head. In 2006 we lost this account due to shipping cost and they found a supplier in their back yard. We got stacked with huge debt and taxes. Plain and simple, our management skills didn’t keep up with the loss. March of 2007 our oldest son 22 years old just finished college was killed in a car accident. At this point its very difficult to focus. The finacial strain is hard on the family with 2 boys in high school.
We have a great business that just needs some help. We have great product lines and huge potential to give back to our community. Can someone lead me into the right direction.
Thanks
Harlan
I believe that the best assistance is the one that goes to destitute and helpless people who most often can never pay back. Hpowever it is also possible to set up revolving funds where intelligent poor people can get educated and commit themselves to pay back for the benfit of yet other poor people. Such benevolent fund could be managed by trustees and grow through repayments and contributions from successful people. A starting point is to assist those with experience and capability to earn money while working as parallel efforts to gratuitous donations made to destitute people. I fit in with the intellectual lot and hopefully expect your assistnce
I read all of this smiling. I am a single mother, very poor, and never feeling richer. Yes, I am struggling and desperate…yet never so full of wealth. I have read the stories of these wealthy people and wish I had more history on them. Did they sit at a table at 9:30 one morning with coffee in hand broke and smiling with a dream? I live each day blessed and do my best to bless others as i have been blessed. This is not a difficult task. I do not have money to just write a check or build the ranch I so desire so that many can be helped in ways that only a few would understand. Yet I believe that I will be used in many ways until the time comes that I can devote much more money to the people I need to help. One day that will come. Right now I have time…something these people have very little of. I am sure many of them do use the tax write off, however, I believe more that most of them know how much they receive by giving. As I said before, the dream was there and the desire to help others at the same time. I believe they had a smile and a vision. It wasn’t all about them. There was more to it than that. If there wasn’t then they’d be bitter, lonely, and unable to write those checks. They are getting more than a tax break…they live knowing they have done something beautiful. A blessing I get daily and hope to obtain on a greater scale someday. I am only a small ranch away from that dream, and I know someday that dream will be a reality. Even if I have to wait another 10 years. They didn’t sit on their butts and wait for their blessings, neither will I. I just hope the bitterness and resentments some of you show will go away as you help others on their journey. There is a beauty in it that cannot be defined. These people know that and I see it on smaller scales every day. I bet it feels good to them as well.
As Mayor I am trying to find ways to provide better health and attract business to our small town. After discovering one case of HepC I decided that a sewer system in a neccessary requirement. So, not for myself but for our children, elderly and disabled, please lead me to any one or group of people who can assist us in obtaining a sewer system to eleminate the standing water danger in Stasburg,MO.
We do not want a hand out but a hand up. Many want to start home businesses and create a few jobs but with the sewer growth is nearly impossible.
Thank you for your consideration
Patricia L. Shadoin-Ford, Mayor
As an owner of a small business, times are tough and I can not find working capital anywhere. It seems like Washington have it wrong. Instead of helping Wall Street, what about bailing out small business like me. Wall Street ask for 750 Billion all I need to continue my small business is $100K to stay alive. Many times I just wanted to give up, but giving up is not a choice. My children are depending on me. While they fight in Washington I’m about to loose everything I own. Now face with lying off employees. loosing my home, business………. sitting up on Thanksgiving early morning(1:00A.M) because I cannot sleep, so many thoughts running though my mind, feeling all along.
I couldn’t help but notice out of all the philanthropists that gave money only 1 actually gave assistance directly to individuals Percy Ross.all the rest donate to other foundations that have hugely overpaid CEO’s and the little guy like me never see any help.In the past 3 months my hubby lost his job,I lost my health and can’t work my last pay check was for $47.00 which was supposed to some how pay rent,utilities,buy medicine, fix a broken car.I have been turned down everywhere for help. often with no reason given.in less than a week I will be homeless,Hubby has looked everywhere for a job.and to make matters worse my mom is now on her deathbed with lung cancer.If I could have one thing for christmas it would be a job for my hubby where at least we could pay our basic bills.where are these so called foundations of charitable giving for people like me?ooh I know………..we don’t count there is no help for us.so its off to the streets for us .in fact even so called family turned their backs on us and told us oh well there is a tent city you might be able to live in.
For ten years I have worked very hard to become a part of the policial arena.
In 2010, I wish to become the winner as one of the Judges of the Orphans Court in Baltimore City.
On line so much information was submitted to the public that was not true.
The Judge of the Orphans Court -Is the office that determines who will be the executor over a will, determines if a will is authenic, and ensures probate (if applicable).
The present sitting Judges were scared to death in 2006 when I almost kicked their butts.
In 2010, I want others to know that Ramona Baker is not finished but is just getting started.
My goal is to find the best campaign manager, fund raiser, and great planner.
I am ready to get started. I need the correct guidance.
The public needs to know that all candidates deserve to be Judge of Orphans court. Let balance the court system and help make a dream come true.
Presently, I am completing my training as a mediator, divorce and child custody.
A small part of my resume is on my websight http://www.RamonaMoore.com
Thank you,
Ramona Baker
410-814-3791
After reading steeveelynn’s response I feel inspired to know there are others out there who, through the current economic times, still are as optimistic as I am. I proudly work for one of the nonprofits that are being given such a bad wrap in the comments above. (The NP I work for has a budget over $20,000,000 and serves over 60,000 people each year in need -and the Executive Director makes less than $100,000 a year, FYI) I know times are very difficult for many (We are serving 200 more families a month at our food shelf than the same month last year) But those of you looking for help should know there is help out there for you. In most areas United Way should have a local 211 hotline that provides you with many available services you may need. I wish you all the best of luck in the near future and hope the sun begins to shine a little brighter on all of you!
After reading al of the posted responses I too am inspired. I am scowering the internet looking an individual with the with the vision and drive of an entrepreneur, just like the individuals that are listed above. How many times have you seen something ether on the internet or on television and said why didn’t I could of thougt of that? This is exactly what has happened to me. The difference is I have researched and inverstgated and even put my idea into pratice and it works. My problem is the individual that was my financial backer out of “spite” pulled all of the funding. The amount of funding was only $28,000.00. Anyone that might be interested in more information on this cutting edge business involving evidence destruction please call 937-925-2595. I can produce a business plan that has the business all spelled out. I am a retired detective and with certifications in evidence collection and retention so my knowledge of this business is something that I know a great deal about. If getting in on the ground floor of a business with a rapid groth potential please contact me either by the number alerady listed or at jmpsdav@sbcglobal.net
If I were well off I would find nothing more fulfilling than helping those less fortunate. I am not, but I commend those of you who are and choose to help those who need assistance in helping themselves, a cycle of life this world desperately needs.
Having gone through the list of the 25 billionaires and millioners in the USA I came to the conclusion that the USA has very good people from whose examples the other rich people in other parts of the world should follow.Hard work also pays .
i appreciate the good works of the american philantropists but how do i get financial help from any of them to complete my education. i am a second year nursing student. othewise i would have to drop out some few months to come. please help me out. thank you.
Huh? This morning i recieved via UPS first class a check for 3,500 dollars us. I will not go into detail as to how important it was to recieve this money. I did my research and found out it was a fraud. Water mark and all. I have been working on my faith as we all should in some manner and thought like any good optimist….could this be?
After a few hours of not sulking, but playing baseball with a friend my thought returned to how much i really needed exactly 3-4 grand. (It’s for the sake of better parenting)I then thought maybe there are really rich people who would like to help if the cause is legit.
Well, it would seem there are. Yes, i can come up with 3-4 grand in 5 months or so,but it is a time sensitive issue.
If you would like to know more and I will be on guard as i am sure anyone should be……..clarsen73@gmail.com
I and my deaf boyfriend both work parttime jobs and because of my failing health I have applied for disability but u have to be unemployed for a year before u can recieve it and i can’t afford to quit my job for a year, i couldnt pay my rent or utilities,i checked with public housing they are not taking any new applications at this time, i did however get food assistance which i am very grateful for.if there is any assistance you can give it would be greatly appreciated. thank you and god bless
am writing because I am in serious need of care for my medical condition.My story began it’s downward spiral in Aug 2008 and continued downhill to this very moment.I had a seemingly innocuous job related injury occur while working for a Wal*Mart neighborhood market in Arizona.I could not know at that time the course of events to come would end up with the loss of my,home,income,mother and total physical disability and that the daily struggle just to keep my heart beating would begin.I went to my supervisor on Aug 12 and reported a shoulder injury that had occurred in the course of my job as a cashier. she then took me to the Dr. who put me on restricted duty which lessened my hours at work.My husband then lost his job after a verbal altercation with the store manager. he promised that he would get a “new ” job with in a week .of course the economy collapsed at that point leaving us with one part time paycheck .I then began to suffer from chest pain and was forced to go to the hospital tests showed that my heart had severely diminished blood flow to the front of the heart during periods of physical activity.an angiogram failed to show the reason for this loss.I was released from the hospital only to be readmitted and the ultimate out come was a total thyroidectomy. during surgery complications arose and the parathyroid was damaged. I then was released from the hospital and my mother called to inform me she had been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and given 6 months to live.In the meantime I was faced with huge medical bills,no paycheck,no insurance and no help from anyone.so I filed for SSI,bankruptcy and was evicted from my apartment for non payment of rent.I came back to California to be close to my my dying mother. sadly she died 2 days after I arrived in hemet so I had just enough time to say goodbye.after running out of money we landed in the car. and continued to wait for the decision from SSI which I now know was a denial ,I have filed for reconsideration as I desperately need the medical insurance and the medicine .I have no insurance and can not obtain the medicine I need to stay alive without seeing a dr. nor can I afford the medicine. S please I need help through the government denials as I have daily chest pain from a heart that is barely beating and I am getting weaker every day.The only thing I know of that can change things for me is somehow ,someway getting to see a dr.I am currently homeless ,and no one will help me. my health worsens daily.
Darlene Taylor
Your help will me in saving NATURE OF EARTH[INDIA].