Dear world, my family, friends, and every kind-hearted stranger:

My name is Shayla Malcolm and I used to be a librarian. My life was supposed to be filled with the scent of old pages and quiet hours of reading. However, a persistent cough and high fever dragged my life into a brutal war against drug-resistant TB. Today, with a heavy and hopeful heart, I write this letter to ask for your help.

▎ A Stolen Life: From books to medicine

Two years ago, I thought it was just a bad flu. But the cough lasted for months, the weight dropped dramatically, and night sweats soaked my sheets. After a grueling series of tests, I got the dreaded diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

This meant that the standard first-line TB drugs were virtually ineffective against the bacteria in my body. For the past 24 months, I've been taking handfuls of second-line drugs every day, and they come with serious side effects - nausea, tinnitus, extreme fatigue. However, despite all this, the latest CT scan showed that the lesion on my left lung was still expanding and had formed a dangerous cavity. My team of doctors told me in all seriousness that continued medical treatment alone was no longer enough and that I would have to undergo a partial lung resection to remove the severely damaged tissue, which was my best hope for survival.

▎ A lifeline and an unbearable burden

The surgery was scheduled for four weeks. Although I have health insurance, it doesn't cover all critical expenses. The long battle had exhausted my savings, and the immediate surgery and associated costs were a financial mountain I could not climb alone.

After detailed communication with the financial department of the hospital, the funds I need to raise are mainly used for the following key links that cannot be covered by insurance:

Out-of-pocket expenses for surgery (hospital facilities, surgeon's fees) : $3,500

Special post-operative medication and nutritional support (critical recovery period) : $2,000**
(More expensive drug combinations and special nutrition are needed to promote healing and prevent infection after surgery.)

Long-term rehabilitation and physical therapy (to restore lung function) : $1,500**

Transportation to and from the specialist hospital and temporary accommodation for family members during treatment: $1,200**

Loss of Income and post-surgery home Care Emergency Reserve: $1,300**
(Surgery and a long recovery period mean I won't be able to work at all.)

Total target fundraising is: $9,000

That $9,000, it's not just medical bills. It was my chance to clear the infection and breathe freely again, my ticket to waking up from this two-year nightmare.

▎ What does your support mean to me?

$75 will buy me a day's worth of special postoperative antibiotics and painkillers.

$200 will pay for a critical postoperative pulmonary function test.

The $500 can cover the cost of transportation for my mother and me to the hospital for surgery and review.

Any amount of support would be a great encouragement to me and would actually lighten the burden on our family and allow me to focus more on my recovery.

▎ My promise and hope for the future

I, Shayla Malcolm, hereby solemnly promise that every penny you donate will be strictly used for my tuberculosis surgery, rehabilitation and related living expenses. I will keep transparent updates through the crowdfunding platform and share my treatment progress and cost details.

I used to be a source of knowledge and stories for others. If I can overcome the disease, my biggest wish is to go back to the library and volunteer to be an advocate of TB prevention and control, so as to tell people the cruelty and hope of this disease with my experience and help more people like me.

Please help me to have the chance to breathe deeply and painlessly again, to walk into the library again, to feel the sunlight shining through the Windows on the shelves, to smell the books that haunt me.

Thank you for reading my story. Your every donation, every share, have injected a courage for me to overcome the disease.

Thank you very much,

Shayla Malcolm
And to all who care about me