Pat Thurmon came to the Kiwanis Club to speak about her friend Rae McManus and the cookbook they wrote to help defray medical costs that are going to happen because of a kidney transplant. Rae was not able to come to the meeting because she had been in Dallas for a week undergoing testing and was just not up to it. 

The cookbook is called “Thyme with Friends” and the recipes came from Rae McManus, Pat Thurmon and Sharon Brewton, three totally different cooks. Sharon’s daughters picked out some of her favorite recipes to include in the book. There are tributes in the cookbook and Gail Shelton designed the cover. The cookbook came about when Pat and Rae went to lunch and Rae was talking about the money she would need to help pay for things insurance did not cover and how she was going to get that money. She did not want to do a go fund me page and Pat suggested that they do a cookbook. When you are doing what God wants you to do things just fall into place and that is how the cookbook came about.

This is some of Rae’s story. She brings her own sunshine wherever she goes. She is in a wheelchair and you may not realize it but she only has one leg. When she was 14 she was diagnosed with bone cancer and spent two years being treated with chemotherapy at MD Anderson. After 13 years because the treatment destroyed the tissue in her leg she had to have her leg removed. Now she also has kidney damage and needs a transplant. 

The wonderful news is that her husband Bill, a riverboat captain, is a match and is going to be her donor. In a kidney transplant, a live donor is always best. The money is needed to pay for a 6 to 8 week stay after the transplant and because her husband is the donor he will be off work for about 6 weeks. There are also expenses that insurance doesn’t cover, travel expensed and medication that may not be covered by insurance. 

They set a goal for $15,000 and have reached over $13,000. The Kiwanis Club members were very generous in buying cookbooks and making donations.