How MedGift helps families through medical emergencies
Support pages allow patients' loved ones to stay informed and contribute; Learn more at MedGift.com
Fox News’ Megan Brown lost her sister Diem to ovarian cancer in November 2014. Now, Brown is championing the legacy that Diem left behind by continuing to help others through a website her late sister created called MedGift.
MedGift is an easy-to-use website that allows patients and their families to set up a support page that lists ways for people to help. Whether it’s money for a new wig— which is what Diem truly wanted when she was diagnosed in 2005 but felt awkward asking friends for— or company to a chemotherapy appointment, friends can select the gift or donation which is then organized on a Care Calendar.
“People can go on there and make their calendar, they can set up when they have doctor’s appointments, they can say ‘I just want someone to come sit with me while I’m healing,” Brown told Fox News’ Fox and Friends. “They can be there for surgery; they can take care of their animals.”
Diem, who most may know as a former MTV reality star, dreamt up the idea when she was receiving invitations to wedding showers and baby showers with links to registries to help celebrate friends’ milestones. She realized the need for a website where friends and loved ones could celebrate the fight for life with a support registry.
While the website has reached thousands in need, it hit close to home again for Brown after one of her Clemson University sorority sisters needed help. Meagan Glover’s son, Camden, suffered an intestinal malrotation with volvulus a day after his was born. As a result, he lost 85 percent of his small bowel and doctors had to rehabilitate what was left.
“After three months in the NICU we decided we needed a higher level of care so we flew him to Boston Children’s Hospital and we have him on an experimental drug that saved his liver and save his life,” Glover told Fox News’ Fox and Friends. “It wouldn’t have been possible to get to Boston without MedGift.”
The site has helped raise more than $12,000 for the Glover family, and has helped others cover hotel stays for the family as they travel to Boston every six weeks for Camden’s treatment.
“Just having MedGift in our back pocket and having all those people rally around us and supporting us just made the experience so much more meaningful and it felt like we had a team behind us rather than having to fight alone,” Glover said.
Both Glover and Brown urge others to share the site to help other families in need.
“Once you go on, start a campaign if you know anyone who is in need, a patient or a friend, whether it’s a car accident or ALS or a childhood illness, they can go on and start a campaign for somebody and honestly change their life,” Brown said. “It’s not just a one-time donation, you become part of their support team forever.”