Ashley Smith got a double lung transplant last November
Walkertown, NC -- High school is hard enough... exams, peer pressure and for a local 15-year-old... a double lung transplant.
Ashley McKnight recently had a double lung transplant, and the Walkertown community wants to help her ongoing recovery.
Ashley was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was 14 months old. Ashley always lived as a normal healthy child, going to school and doing things she enjoyed. Ashley has been hospitalized at different times in her life to receive antibiotics to clear out lung infections. On November 28, 2009 Doctors at the University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill perfomed a life-saving double lung transplant on Ashley.
With the cost of a transplant often exceeding $500,000, many transplant patients are unable to shoulder the financial burden of such a procedure. The Children's Organ Transplant Association (COTA) is a national charity dedicated to organizing and guiding communities in raising funds for transplant-needy patients. The Walkertown Civic Club teamed up with COTA in an effort to raise funds for Ashley. This partnership was formed to ensure that Ashley continues to recieve the care she needs regardless of the cost associated with her continued treatment.
The Ashley McKnight fundraiser is Saturday. It's an all you can eat spaghetti dinner and silent auction. It will be 4-8pm at the Morris Chapel Family Life Center. It's on Darrow Road in Walkertown.
WFMY News 2