Detroit’s own Grammywinning artist Dwele and Marsha Ambrosius, the internationally renowned British R&B singer and founder of the famed group Floetry, will perform at a major benefit concert on Saturday, April 27, 8 p.m., at the Max M. Fisher Music Hall in support of the Really Living Foundation, a venture created in 2002 to help chronically and terminally ill individuals.
Conya Doss, a neo-soul singer, will also perform creating a trifecta musical experience. The Really Living Foundation, started by Detroit native John Cook, a philanthropist and an entrepreneur who was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) two decades ago, today stands in the gap for financially distressed individuals who are undergoing kidney illness.
Cook said based on his personal experience of being on dialysis for 20 years, he wanted to give back to the community in a meaningful way where those who are suffering the same fate he did long ago can find some sort of relief. “They told me I had five hours to get to the hospital for a kidney transplant. I had to stop what I was doing and just go. It was kind of a shock,” Cook said in an earlier interview with the News- Herald.
That ordeal would transform his life and later lead to the creation of a foundation that now is offering help to the chronically ill with several types of services, including transportation, prescription and financial assistance. “With regard to the transportation, if requested in a timely manner, we will provide or arrange for patient transport to medical treatments including dialysis or chemotherapy,” the foundation stated. “For prescription assistance, if there is a medication that is a necessity for a patient’s treatment and is not covered by insurance, we will assist the patient in obtaining that particular prescription.
If it’s just a matter of a person being unable to pay his/her co-pay, we will pay that portion, so that they can continue to receive their medication without interruption.” The foundation said monetary help is given to patients who are able to demonstrate that they have a financial hardship which is a direct result of their medical condition. “There is no expense that is automatically precluded, these requests are decided on a case by case basis,” the foundation noted.
Saturday night’s concert, the foundation’s third annual benefit, will boost the work that is being done to alleviate the suffering of those with kidney disease. Tickets are available at the Max Fisher box office or by visiting www.dso. org.