Brian Doyle, UP author and magazine editor who underwent surgery for a brain tumor in November, is “brave” but “feeble and very sick,” according to his wife Mary Doyle’s Jan. 27 post on a GoFundMe account.
The GoFundMe account, created by Catherine Green on behalf of the Doyle Family, will accept donations of any amount, as caring for Brian may leave Mary unable to work. In the account’s original post, Green wrote that these funds aim to, “relieve the family of the burden of the financial stress associated with ongoing therapy, cancer treatments, rehabilitation and transportation costs.”
The account has already surpassed its initial goal of $100,000, and is well on it’s way to reaching the new goal set at $150,000. As of Feb. 3, more than $111,000 have been donated by 1,042 individuals over the course of the last two months.
The Beacon could not reach Green for comment, but shortly after the account was set up, there was a comment left by Lily Doyle that reads: “Hello all, I am Brian Doyle's daughter Lily, and this page is real. Catherine Green is my mom's best friend. Thank you so, so much for your kindness and generosity here... We couldn't be more blessed than to have friends like you all.”
Donations are coming in around the clock from people all over the world for Doyle, a nine-time Oregon Book Award nominee. Although some donations are anonymous, most are accompanied by messages explaining the ways Brian and his writing have touched their lives.
“Brian, you don't know me but I have loved and taught your writing for many, many years,” user Melita Schaum wrote on Feb. 2.
The GoFundMe has been shared on Facebook and Twitter over two thousand times.
Mary Doyle wrote on the page that despite the fact that “the road map of the last few weeks has shown nothing but complications and more complications,” it is because of the friendship, generosity and “brilliant caring minds and methods and medicine,” that, even in the hospital, “Brian still has woken up every morning with a wink and a smile, asking for his morning coffee.”
The Doyle Family is “overwhelmed and humbled and grateful” by the support and “deep and abiding friendships and family and many we haven't even met.”
