LETTERS (Kathy Ireland)
By Herald de Paris Contributor's Bureau on May 18, 2009
May 18th, 2009
I am very grateful to the editorial and publishing team @ Herald de Paris et Cie for your willingness to bring global attention to a story that I am unable to verify. Please know that my greatest fear is that this is a true story with missing or unrelated facts that could delay or destroy what may very well be a genuine and critical need.
I believe that Herald de Paris became aware and began carrying this story after I offered support and sought help for this family. As the needs and requests shifted from awareness to seeking donations, I was advised by friends and loved ones to stop making others aware of this situation until my questions could be answered.
I am spending today in the State Capitol of California and I wanted to make a personal appeal for this young man’s life to our legislators. To accomplish this, I needed many facts that are sadly unavailable. My responses from the person who began the appeal are not, regretfully, adequate for me to continue seeking support. At no time did I ask anyone else to donate money to this effort. Our company, Kathy Ireland Worldwide, made a good faith commitment of $1000.00, as an intended deposit for safe medical transport for this young man. As I questioned which hospital and doctors the person seeking help was communicating with, the answers to my questions did not appear.
My prayer is that whatever the outcome of this situation, your media group will continue to be open to genuine appeals from on line sources.We all need your audience for awareness. I promise you that I will trust and verify any information before asking you to help in the future. I will however ask again, because your power to do great good outweighs whatever may have happened in this awkward situation. I am very mindful that there may be a genuine need here and that whatever we say at this time could literally impact a valuable human life. We must wait for the story and it’s central person, the young man in need, to be vetted by an organization with background in the organ transplant arena. If that information comes forward, I am prepared to help and I believe that Herald de Paris will help as well. I apologize that my support of this cause placed your journalists in a situation which now is being questioned. In future, I will engage deeper thought and research before leading with my heart and asking for help from you or anyone else. That being said, I will always value Herald de Paris and your willingness to act at once when you saw a need. We cannot, we must not, allow due diligence or skepticism to keep us from the quest of helping others. Thank you for reaching across the ocean to help a family in crisis. That kindness from you will never be forgotten.
Yours sincerely,
Kathy Ireland
Kathy Ireland Worldwide
The story that Kathy Ireland is referring to has been vetted and has gained national attention in the US. More details are available at http://www.weloveeric.com.
As an early supporter of this cause, I understand how it would be difficult to know all the facts as things were developing. I hope that Herald de Paris keeps its heart open to future developing stories, especially those where someone’s life is at stake.
Eric is still in the hospital and is still fighting for his life.
~@jesseluna on Twitter