Actress Rosie Murray seeks funds for surgery
THE family of actress and broadcaster Rosie Murray has launched a crowdfunding initiative to raise money to offset the cost of heart surgery for the 58-year-old.
An account has been established with gofundme.com to raise US$20,000 for the surgery — an angioplasty — needed to resuscitate a small part of her heart since her heart attack on December 29, last year.
Her son Phillip Andrew Lopez, who launched the campaign, said the surgery is critical for her to return to her work on stage as well as other entrepreneurial efforts.
“My mom has been working for herself since unscrupulous actions had derailed her interest in working in direct media corporations for about two years. She’s been growing a weekly business in baking and, actually, writing and executing her first production Slice of Life last year. It’s a personal, comedic and therapeutic theatrical experience that has rave reviews from Jamaican media circles and was set to make her first international run as soon as March 2018.”
“She was just hitting her entrepreneurial stride and reaching full potential when this tragedy hit her at age 58. Doctors say she could be up and running with the surgery. The area in the heart is still receiving blood, so it’s not too late, but as time goes by her chances of fully restoring heart function is heightened. She’s currently doing her best with maintenance through cardiotherapy exercise, complete diet change and taking her meds. But this procedure could make all these efforts completely restore her chances of fully returning to her life on the stage and entrepreneurship,” said Lopez.
Murray was at a birthday celebration for a long-standing friend when she suffered the heart attack. She was hospitalised for a short while and is said to be on a diet which excludes meat, salt and dairy.
Last year Murray, a veteran of the local stage, won her first Actor Boy Award for her riveting portrayal of a mute woman in David Tulloch’s Not My Child.
Up to yesterday, one day after the campaign was launched, the fund had reached US$2,250.
