For 12 years, social worker Angie Duckworth and her colleagues have operated a fund on a shoestring budget that provides patients recovering from transplant surgery with small donations to help cover groceries, parking fees or utility bills. Now, with a $100,000 endowed gift from a grateful liver transplant recipient, the Stepping Stones program is well poised to help hundreds more patients in the years to come.

“We constantly hear from patients about the difficulties they have managing all of the expenses that come with transplant,” Duckworth says. “The world doesn’t stop spinning, so even managing their electricity bill can get challenging.”

Duckworth launched Stepping Stones in 2008. Over the years, the program has supported itself through fundraising events such as holiday parties and bingo nights, donations from transplant surgeons and staff, and activities like T-shirt sales.

It’s been enough to provide hundreds of patients with parking vouchers, gas station gift cards, and other assistance as needed to support successful outcomes. The fund also has been able to do some unique things, like purchase work boots for one patient returning to work, and provide money to supplement another patient’s purchase of a prosthetic leg. The transplant social workers can do a needs assessment.

“Patients are really thankful,” Duckworth says. “There are a lot of people who don’t qualify for typical patient assistance programs, and we can hand them something quickly without filling out an application and waiting. Being able to cover groceries for a couple of weeks is some weight off their shoulders. Sometimes these little things can go a long way.”

When one of Andrew Cameron’s patients asked where she could provide a donation, he suggested Stepping Stones. The donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, first made a gift of $5,000. Several months later, she called Duckworth and wanted to do more.

“At a time when patients and their families are working hard to recover from a serious surgery like transplant, we can’t let financial worries get in the way of healing,” the donor says. “Dr. Cameron and his team gave me more than a new liver; they gave me hope. It’s important to my family to help give that hope to others by giving to Stepping Stones.”

Cameron, a longtime champion of the program, says he often sees patients in clinic after surgery whose medical problems are resolved but who still face additional challenges, such as making copays for medicines or providing food or presents for holidays.

“Endowing this gift fund means we can impact many holidays, as well as unpaid water and heating bills,” Cameron says. “We now have leverage to continue the program for quite some time.”

To learn more, visit the Comprehensive Transplant Center's Charitable Giving page.