Christmas 2018 is over, as we close the book on the year and look towards the new one. Many of us make New Year’s resolutions for 2019, some public while others resolve privately and still others do not feel the spirit during these dark wintery days before us. Opening a new year looks and can feel like fresh snow on a dirty cold earth, a virgin white canvas just ready for painting a better world. For me I have a story to tell you as I share my birthday wish for January 6, 2019.
Donate Now to Health Care for All Oregon!
The Story: Tanya Heidi Wray (3/19/73–1/31/09)
My daughter Tanya Heidi (Brain) Wray was born in Medford and after 12 years of school and a degree from Southern Oregon University, was well on her way to a bright career and a warm family life with her loving husband Brian when at age 26 in early 2000 she was diagnosed with Leukemia. Her nearly nine year-long journey to get the care she needed when she and her doctors wanted it tragically ended January 31, 2009. The 10-year anniversary of losing Tanya looms hauntingly on my horizon for the new year. Those who know Tanya’s story know it was GVHD, Graft Versus Host Disease after the bone marrow transplant, which ended her life on earth. Others know the inside story of how our healthcare system, basically a non-system, dealt a cruel hand day after day and year after year as dear Tanya was not given treatment when and where it was needed. Leukemia’s physical attack on Tanya’s body was accompanied by a cruel mental attack which defines our profit-over-people healthcare in these United States. From bankruptcy to denial of care, Tanya’s journey was inhumane. Nobody should be denied necessary healthcare. We can and we will do better in the future.
My Birthday Wish for January 6, 2019
Go to the www.hcao.org website and click Donate Now to a make a donation to Health Care for All Oregon. My birthday wish is for you to join me in making a HCAO tax deductible Sustainer Member donation at $10. minimum per month (or more!). While on the website make sure and click Statement of Support to join over 32,000 Oregonians (and growing) who are onboard to change this cruel system. No doubt you know how the pharmaceutical and private insurance industries are fighting hard against single payer. Meanwhile patients face narrowing networks and skyrocketing deductibles which often shut down options when people need care the most. We have a moral obligation to accelerate this work to make sure we don’t lose more of our people. Please get onboard and help–It will take all of us to make the change we need.
Donate Now to Health Care for All Oregon!
Below you can read the hardest thing I ever wrote in my life. No writing class ever taken in high school or college prepares a parent to write their child’s obituary.
In solidarity,
Wes Brain, board member
Health Care for All Oregon
Everybody In ~ Nobody Out
Health Care for ALL!
| Wray, Tanya Heidi |
Tanya Heidi Wray 
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| Published in the Mail Tribune on 3/15/2009 |
Tanya met Brian Wray, fell in love and married him on July 19, 1998. Brian’s passion is bicycling and restoring old bikes. He prepared a classic for Tanya and the couple enjoyed the sport “in style”. Tanya and Brian loved gardening, visiting the coast, and hiking up Grizzly Peak.
