Merline Phillips - Sheldon Williams

Merline Phillips is 46 years old. she suffers from retinal detachment and needs your immediate help to do laser surgery before her sight deteriorates.

If treatment is not received as soon as possible, there is a risk Phillips' retinas may detach entirely, resulting in permanent blindness or vision loss.

Phillips needs at least $25,000 to pay for the required surgery and she's finding it difficult to accumulate all the money in time.

"The earlier I do it, the best for me because my sight is going," Phillips remarked. "I'm partially blind, darkness and fogginess in my eyes ... I can't even see danger. God has to just keep me. Right now, I'm just seeing shadows."

To make matters more difficult, Phillips is unemployed and has no support system, family members or friends, to assist her in gathering the money to pay for her much needed surgery. "There's no one to help me," Phillips, who also suffers from hypertension, said.

Furthermore, because of the deterioration of her sight, Phillips was forced to quit her self-employed job as a dressmaker some years ago, because she couldn't see clearly. She has been unemployed for the past six years and has two children to take care of.

As a result of the condition of her eyes, Phillips faces difficulties daily, carrying out tasks that would have been simple for her before her ailment. "It slow me down in everything, not even wash I can wash because it slow me down a great deal," she said.

Anyone wishing to help Phillips, can contact her at 580-4903 or 417-2892.