What a difference a day makes.
On July 2, Stephanie Headley was counting the days she had left to live. The Ottawa woman is suffering from an autoimmune disease that, without expensive treatment, will cause her heart to fail.
On July 3, thanks to a mysterious stranger who showed up at her door, she had in her hands more than enough money to get the treatment that can save her life.
Two weeks later, she still struggles to explain the dramatic change in her fortune.
"This is a miracle" she told CNN partner CBC, referring to the mystery donor as an "angel that walks among us."
Hope with a cost
For 12 long years, the single mother of four has battled systemic scleroderma. The disease causes her body to overproduce collagen, making her skin, vital organs and blood vessels hard. Eventually the disease would have caused her heart to fail. And Headley says she felt time was running out.
But Headley had hope.
She told the Canadian TV stations, CBC and CTV, that she'd found a doctor in Chicago who could do a stem cell treatment. One with an 80% success rate.
However, the treatment came with a hefty $125,000 (US$ 116,000) price tag -- far out of reach for Headley.
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