Client Stories

"I remember feeling the room turn sideways when he told me," says Nancy as she recalls being informed of her breast cancer diagnosis last September at Providence's Southern Oregon Cancer Center. "We're sitting there talking about chemo treatment schedules for the winter, but I'm just in a state of shock... and it hasn't even occurred to me yet that I have…

Before the Affordable Care Act, Susan had never really had health insurance. In fact, she says she'd never really had much preventative care at all. "Growing up and then later on as well, we just weren't real big on western medicine. Going to the doctor was for broken bones. Everything else, you get sick: try adjusting your diet, take these…

When doctors at OHSU's Casey Eye Institute removed the pads from Ramon's eyes following his glaucoma treatment, the first thing he saw was his adult son who had driven him to the visit. It was the first time Ramon had seen his son's face clearly in several years. "I felt very emotional," Ramon says, "and to be honest, I cried."…

"So many beautiful things have happened in my life," says 71-year-old Marina. Smile on her face, she proudly recalls raising her 4 sons in a hut with a thatched roof in her native Peru. "For money, my husband worked as a driver while I fried chickens for my neighbors. Rain leaked through our roof," she says, "and I would pray…

Diane, Richard, and their family Enrolling one person in health insurance can be complicated enough, but try enrolling your whole family. "And we're a big family," explains Project Access NOW client Diane, "like multiple-mini-vans-to-take-a trip-together' big. Managing health insurance for all of us gets overwhelming fast." That's why Diane and her husband Richard started to get nervous when, after assuming…

Vilma and Carl When Vilma walked into the Legacy Good Samaritan emergency room back in 2015, her new husband Carl at her side, she recalls that she felt terrified, and it wasn't just because she was having an emergency asthma attack and couldn't breathe. "I can hear the rattle in my chest, but in my head all I'm thinking is,…

Gary has seen a lot in his life and is more than happy to tell you about most of it. "I grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the Toulumne Cherokee reservation. I'm Cherokee-Chickasaw. I came to Oregon fourteen years ago, following the woman I loved." Gary makes and sells beaded necklaces. He teaches Kung Fu and…

Caralee, like many of our clients, came to us with a problem that had a simple solution, it just happened to be a solution that was impossible for her to access on her own. Caralee takes Coumadin, a prescription blood-thinner that keeps blood clots from forming in her body that could lead to sudden strokes, heart attacks, or other frightening…

Gerardo with Project Access NOW employee Sasha Viches When Project Access NOW client Gerardo walked into our office to speak to us for this article, he was pleased to find an old friend waiting for him. Gerardo and Project Access NOW's own Program Implementation Specialist Sasha Viches first met in 2013, when Gerardo sought help for pain in his foot…