“If you’re reading this I have passed away,” Casey McIntyre asked to have posted to social media when the time came.
The note went up Monday on Instagram. In it, McIntyre wrote, “I’ve arranged to buy up others’ medical debt and then destroy the debt” and asked readers to consider contributing to the cause, the BBC reports.
The 38-year-old said she was fortunate to have quality medical care during her battle with stage 4 ovarian cancer, which began in 2019, and wanted everyone to have similar access.
By Saturday, she and her family had raised over $170,000.
The New York City woman, the mother of an 18-month-old girl, died Sunday at home, her husband, Andrew Rose Gregory, posted.
A vice president and publisher at Penguin Random House’s Razorbill, she had set up payments to RIP Medical Debt.
The nonprofit says that it buys medical debt “in bundled portfolios, millions of dollars at a time at a fraction of the original cost,” and that donations have a multiplier effect.
The organization says it pays off one dollar of debt for every penny donated, which would add up to as much as $17 million covered by McIntyre’s campaign so far.
“We are buying others’ medical debt and destroying it,” her husband said, per People. Gregory thanked the “top-notch medical” providers who helped McIntyre’s loved ones have “four more years with Casey.” (Read more medical bills stories.)
