MOORPARK : Veteran of Benefits Tries to Aid Relative
A Moorpark dance teacher who has helped organize benefits for strangers is now trying to help scrape together more than $100,000 to pay for a relative’s bone marrow transplant.
“I just thought it was a good time to help somebody who I really do know,” Pam Recupito said.
A 39-year-old cousin of Recupito’s husband has a rare form of bone cancer. Doctors have scheduled a bone marrow transplant for the end of November for the woman, who lives in Philadelphia with her husband and five children. Health insurance won’t pay for the procedure because it is considered experimental, Recupito said.
The transplant will cost at least $150,000 and possibly as much as $250,000, said a spokeswoman at the hospital where the transplant will be performed. Other members of the woman’s family have raised about $40,000. Recupito, 33, said her goal is to raise $5,000 to send to the family by Christmas.
Recupito is selling tickets to raffle off a large afghan that an elderly friend spent 90 hours crocheting.
For more information on the raffle, call Recupito at 529-5156.
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