Barbara

Barbara is one of our younger clients - she's in her late 60s. But she has a lot of health concerns: she has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and heart disease; her diabetes has lead to peripheral neuropathy of her hands and feet, and she needs a cane to get around; she is hard of hearing and uses a hearing aid; her vision is starting to fail; and she is using drugs to stave off a further development of her early Alzheimer's.

 

You might think that Barbara wouldn't be that much fun to be around, but when I met her, I was struck by her cheerful and positive attitude. With all these ailments, she does has a lot of medical appointments, though. Her younger sister lives in the area, but is fully-employed, and can't take Barbara to all the doctors she needs to see.

 

In the almost two years she's been a client with Faith in Action, volunteers have driven 675 miles on Barbara's behalf, 20 trips to medical appointments.

For more information, see: Faith in Action - Supporting Senior Independence.