Direct Monetary Grants

For those without insurance or the personal assets to cover needed medical expenses, the Foundation can help with direct financial assistance. Sometimes this is only necessary as a bridge while permanent solutions are put into place. Our primary objective is to ensure that required treatments are available on a timely basis.

Assistance with the Insurance Process

Anyone who has been seriously ill knows that navigating the technicalities of insurance coverage can be a daunting process. The Foundation has volunteers from the medical and insurance professions who can be helpful in understanding the scope of insurance coverage a patient may have and the procedures necessary to obtain it.

Travel Expense Coverage

The Foundation can help with the cost of uninsured travel expenses, including lodging, for the patient and travel companions in order to reach and stay in the location where required medical services are available.

Bone Marrow Donor Program

The Island Gift of Life historically designates $10,000 per year to sponsor blood drives. During these drives, we encourage individuals to participate in a voluntary cheek swab to test for bone marrow matching. A bone marrow transplant is often the only form of hope for a cure in certain forms of cancer. Finding bone marrow donors who might be a possible match for cancer patients throughout the world is an ongoing challenge. Many people are unaware that a simple blood sample is all that is required in order to test for a possible match.

Miscellaneous Services

The Island Gift of Life Foundation offers the medically needy a broad range of services that cannot be easily described. We are here to make the whole process of dealing with a complex illness more bearable for stressed patients and their families. Our experienced board members often recommend a solution to a thorny problem that the patient can't come up own their own due to their overwhelming sadness and concentration on the immediate problems of illness. Occasionally, support comes in the form of our helping to find home health care workers, childcare, or rounding up volunteers to makeover a bathroom to be handicap accessible. Rather than simply being a grant making organization, our goal is to follow up with whatever is necessary to get the problem solved.

Confidentiality

Please be assured that all dealings with the Foundation are kept in the strictest confidence. Not even all board members know the identity of the people we are trying to help. It is our procedure to assign board members to cases based on their experience and availability, these are the individuals who will work with the patient on an ongoing basis. The interface with Foundation members should be virtually effortless for our patients.

Medical Expense Reduction

Through the diverse expertise of the Foundation's board members, medical expenses can sometimes be reduced by identifying cost-effective alternatives for obtaining medical and drug treatments. Occasionally we are able to arrange for a reduction of a medical bill or, at the very least, favorable payment terms.