As excited first-time parents, Royal Palm Beach resident Amanda Blomberg and her husband, Randy, never expected the challenges ahead. At nine months old, their son Lucas (now six) was declared legally blind with cataracts, requiring surgery, expensive eyeglasses and medical appointments. About a year later, doctors revealed another devastating diagnosis: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), a rare, cancer-like condition that required a year of chemotherapy. More recently, Lucas was diagnosed with autism, ADHD and dyslexia.
Amanda and Randy’s second son, Logan (now four), has had his own fair share of challenges. Born premature, he has endured pneumonia, hernia surgery and is beginning to display some of the same behavioral symptoms as his brother. While the Blombergs’ family have helped out with medical expenses, Amanda and her husband struggled to hold on financially when she was laid off during the pandemic.
Today, the Blombergs are celebrating a win. Thanks to Aflac, the nation’s largest provider of supplemental insurance, the family received $10,000 toward their sons’ medical expenses. Amanda discovered Aflac CareGrants, the company’s commitment to help families and individuals focus on their physical recovery instead of financial recovery, through a previous winner’s post on Facebook. Aflac gave away $1,000,000 in CareGrants to individuals and nonprofits last year and has committed to do the same throughout 2023.
All individual applicants had to do was submit a 300-word written entry or 90-second video about their struggle with medical debt. Health insurance was never designed to cover everything, and Aflac believes the costs of healthcare shouldn’t come at the expense of peace of mind. The Blombergs’ story is featured in Aflac’s latest campaign to support additional entries to the program, which is accepting new entries Oct. 1-31. For more info., visit www.aflac.com/aflac-cares/caregrant.aspx.
