What does a mother do after her son dies? If she’s Leslie Boyd she starts an advocacy organization, Life O Mike to push for changes that will help keep other mothers from experiencing the pain of losing a child due to a lack of health insurance.

Over the past year Leslie’s held two rallies for health care reform in Mike’s honor and there’s a third scheduled for Sunday April 19th in downtown Raleigh, on the grounds of the State Capitol from 2 to 4 p.m. She wants you to come by. Leslie and others will share their stories of how the health care system has failed them and then talk about what you can do to push for changes. Check out Leslie’s website at www.LifeOMike.org or send Leslie an e-mail at lifeomike@gmail.com to learn more.

A year ago this April 1st Leslie’s son Mike died from cancer, but as she told me during our recent meeting in Asheville, he never lost his sense of humor. Even as Mike went through chemotherapy he continued “cracking jokes about the chemo pump he wore for a week at a time, and radiation, saying he hoped it might make him glow in the dark.” And at his memorial service friends and family shared in the memories of Mike’s practical jokes.

Mike’s story is a devastating one, as Leslie told me that he didn’t get the preventative screenings he needed because he was uninsured and couldn’t afford to pay. He had a high risk of cancer from a childhood illness and needed regular colonoscopies to screen for cancer. His cancer wasn’t caught until Stage 3 when Mike was admitted to the hospital with renal failure and vomiting fecal matter.

Leslie makes it no secret that Mike had made some bad choices, and by age 22 he’d flunked out of community college, entered a disastrous marriage, and fought drug and alcohol addiction as a teenager. But instead of throwing in the towel, Mike started life over, sober, and with a new mission to help others find and maintain sobriety. When he was diagnosed with cancer Mike was going back to school, studying to be a chef and working part-time in a restaurant which didn’t provide health insurance, of course.

Estimates vary, but tens of thousands of American die each year because they lack health insurance, and Mike was one of them. It’s an outrage and to help do something about it Leslie created Life o’ Mike, an organization dedicated to raising awareness and pushing law makers to fix our health care system so people don’t die simply because they can’t afford health insurance and the access to care that comes with it.

So if you live in the Raleigh area, come down to the Capitol to meet Leslie and support health reform on April 19th from 2 to 4PM

comments (1)

If he could afford drugs & alcohol, he could have afforded health insurance. Even saved a little money. It is NOT my responsibility to pay for your son's poor choices. I am VERY sorry to hear of his death. The best option is to cut the size of govwernment by at least 1/3. Get millions off the state & fed. payrolls. The tax burden would be lifted enough to put major $$$'S in the publics pocket for spending as they choose.....health care....or drugs/alcohol. Again, NOT my responsiblity. I believe we SHOULD take care of 100% of those that can't take care of themselves, and 0% of those who can take care of themselves, but don't or make their own poor choices.

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