Olivia Fernandez is 45 years old. She’s beautiful, warm, and the most caring person I know. I’m lucky enough to call her my mother, and am honored to be by her side as she fights for a heart transplant to save her life.

When my mom was nineteen, she had a stomach infection that affected her heart and required a pacemaker. Luckily for all of us, the treatment worked, and she was able to have my sister and me and enjoy a great life with her family. Recently, her heart has started failing. The Mayo Clinic Phoenix Campus, where she’s been since September, was in the middle of prepping her for a new heart when she was diagnosed with a rare disability called Myofibrillar Muscular Dystrophy. Now, the doctors are reconsidering giving her this life-saving transplant.

Myofibrillar Muscular Dystrophy affects mainly the skeletal muscles, causing weakness and pain. In rare instances, it can weaken the heart, but she has only just started showing symptoms of the illness, and it takes years to progress. Though this muscle disease will certainly make her life difficult, she could still have many more years in her if the doctors agree to give her a heart transplant.

Please join me in calling on the Mayo Clinic Phoenix Campus to consider a heart transplant for my mother. Those suffering from difficult disabilities deserve a chance at a long life, just like everyone else.

As Olivia’s oldest daughter, I have seen her at her best and worst. Currently, I see that she is stable and strong enough to handle a heart transplant. A new, healthy heart could extend my mother’s life by many years. It would allow her to see my younger sister, Marisa, and I grow into mature young women that she can be proud of. I cannot fathom the thought of her not being there to take Marisa to her first day of high school or watch me graduate next year.

Please, for my family and for all families dealing with disabilities, call on the Mayo Clinic and its doctors to be more open to transplanting organs to people with disabilities such as Muscular Dystrophy.