POLK (UPDATED 3/14 with new date) – A benefit has been planned for longtime Mapleton school board member Tom Donley to help with his battle against a lung disease.
The Polk Lions Club will be serving a benefit dinner from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 21, at Mapleton High School.
Donley, 59, has been battling idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis for several years and is in the process of discovering if he is a candidate for a lung transplant.
Originally, Donley, a 1976 graduate of Mapleton High, thought he just had a chest cold about three years ago. But the cold stuck with him for months so his doctors tried inhalers and a variety of other treatments before they sent him to a respiratory therapist at the Ashland hospital.
“He had an inkling but he wanted to get a second opinion so he sent me up to the Cleveland Clinic,” Donley said.
The doctor at the Clinic confirmed the Ashland doctor’s diagnosis: idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a disease in which tissue deep in your lungs becomes thick and stiff, or scarred, over time. As the lung tissue thickens, the patient’s lungs can’t properly move oxygen into the bloodstream.
“Something is causing scar tissue on your lungs and once the damage is done, there’s no replacing it. No bringing it back,” Donley said.
“Ideopathic” means unknown, as in the doctors don’t know what caused Donley’s disease. There are some factors that can play a role but none fit for him.
“They always ask, ‘Did you smoke?’ ‘Did you work around chemicals?’ Neither. There’s no history in my family. So it’s just out of the blue where this came from,” Donley said.
Doctors told Donley that they condition will worsen to the point where he will need to be on oxygen all the time and eventually will need a lung transplant.
“It’s gotten to a point where the doctor didn’t want to start to late on the process,” Donley explained.
Donley went to the Cleveland Clinic for two days last week for a series of tests and evaluations to decide if he can start the process to receive a lung transplant.
He has continued to work his job with a vending machine company, but he doesn’t know how much longer that will last.
“I’ve been able to handle it, but it’s getting tougher,” Donley said. “The doctor said, ‘I can’t tell you when to stop, but you’ll know when to stop.’”
Once he is unable to work any longer, he will have to file for disability benefits.
“And who knows how long that will take,” Donley said.
His doctors have told him that his condition has a high rate of approval to receive disability benefits, so he is hopeful.
Donley has been taking medication to try and slow the disease’s progression. One side effect of the medication is weight loss, causing him to lose about 70 pounds in the last 18 months.
“When people haven’t seen me for awhile, it’s a little bit of a shock,” Donley said.
There are no dietary restrictions for what he can eat, but he just doesn’t have the appetite he used to.
Donley expressed his thanks to fellow Mapleton board member Shawn Grundy, who spearheaded the benefit, and the rest of the community who are pitching in to help.
The cost of the dinner is by donation only. In addition to the dinner, several organizations and groups have donated baskets for a raffle.
Donley will be celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary with his wife, Terri, on April 10. He has two, children, Tyler, 28, and Taylor Riffel, 26, and one grandchild.
