MINERAL RIDGE Fund-raisers aim to help kidney patient

A family is rallying to raise funds for a kidney transplant.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- A 47-year-old Mineral Ridge woman's family is planning fund-raisers to help cover the estimated $50,000 cost of her dialysis treatments and a kidney transplant.
Joyce Juart of 76-B Omalia Drive suffers from Type I diabetes and is in renal failure, requiring her to have kidney dialysis three times a week.
Her husband, Kenneth, is a retired member of the Carpenters Union Local 171 and the couple has a son, Kenneth, 25.
Joyce Juart's brother, Larry Stitt, who works at the Salem Wal-Mart, is a match to be her donor for the transplant.
Although Mrs. Juart has insurance coverage for the procedure, she is coming away with 20 percent of her dialysis bill three times a week left to be paid, about $2,050 a week, said her sister-in-law, Karen Binion Juart.
Her brother's insurance will not cover the cost of his being a donor because the surgery is considered nonessential.
Binion Juart and daughter-in-law Pearl Juart are planning fund-raisers of all types to help pay for the surgery.
Coming up
The first is a spaghetti dinner from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. June 27 in Mineral Ridge Church of Christ, 69 Main Street North. Young's Grocery Store on state Route 46 is sponsoring the dinner. Cost is $6 for adults and $5 for children under 12. Children under 2 eat free.
Donations also are being accepted at any Farmers National Bank branch.
A chicken dinner also is in the works.
Other events to be sponsored include a poker run by the Harley-Davidson Club in Warren and a skate night at the Skate Zone Family Fun Center in Austintown.