A wife and mother turned her last month on Earth into a fundraiser to wipe out medical debt burdens of families and individuals in need.
Passing away 12 days ago at the age of 38, Casey McIntyre’s death and the humble request at its onset has raised $650,000, which has the likely potential to pay off $65 million in privately-shouldered medical debt.
A mother of one and a publicist at Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House, Casey is survived by her husband of 8 years Andrew Gregory and her daughter Grace. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2019. A long battle resulted in a transfer to hospice care for her final 6 months.
On November 12th, a post appeared on her social media accounts that announced her passing, saying “I loved each and every one of you with my whole heart and I promise you, I knew how deeply I was loved.”
On her obituary page, it’s written that “she was a consummate New Yorker who always knew which bodegas had the best magazine selections, whether to take the B or the Q, what restaurants were best to spot celebrities, and [who] gave every new New Yorker the same advice: make sure you buy a coat that covers your butt, because that’s where you lose a lot of warmth.”
Casey decided to host a “debt jubilee” a term of growing popularity used to describe fundraising for debt purchases. As GNN has reported several times, America is so loaded up with debt, and many creditors like hospitals and universities provide so much service on credit that the chance for a cash payout is more attractive than a long, slow, perhaps uncertain collection of debt.
In the wake of the Occupy Wall Street protests, a pair of hedge fund managers created RIP Medical Debt, which has so far wiped out billions in private medical debt for pennies on the dollar.
It was for this organization that Casey decided to raise money. Staying a long time in hospital, she received a great level of service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, but recognized that this wasn’t possible for everyone.
On the Sunday following Casey’s death, $220,000 had been raised, which “stunned” Andrew.
“We’re overwhelmed, and it’s been really powerful to see the response to people wanting to eliminate strangers’ medical debt.”
That amount has increased nearly 3x after the story was published in the New York Times.
