Ill woman cheered by offers of aid

By Ronald W. Powell
STAFF WRITER

December 24, 2005

Jo A. Del Rio began the holiday season in despair but found herself heartened this Christmas by the support of strangers and former co-workers.

Dozens of San Diegans have offered to help Del Rio, a scientific researcher who is living at the San Diego Rescue Mission because numerous medical problems have left her unable to work and nearly broke.

Her story was published Sunday in The San Diego Union-Tribune, and an unnamed donor responded by offering to pay her rent for a year. Other readers have offered financial assistance.

Del Rio is looking for an apartment that will allow her to reunite with her six cats that she placed in foster care before entering the mission Nov. 2. She was hoping to have a place by Christmas, "but it looks like that will be pushing it," she said.

"I feel so much more optimistic," said Del Rio, 51, who earned a doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of California Irvine and worked at the Salk Institute and Merck & Co. "Wow. I'm surprised at how many people have reached out to help."

Some donors are former colleagues who didn't know about her troubles. She worked in a Salk laboratory from November 1999 to summer 2002, making $38,000 a year, then at Merck from September 2002 until January 2004, where she made $80,000 a year.

"It was so great to hear from my former colleagues," she said.

Del Rio was laid off from Merck in a companywide downsizing. She volunteered as a researcher at Salk until March 2004, when she was hospitalized with bleeding in her lungs.

Since then, she has been hospitalized 15 times, including once for a heart attack, and requires supplemental oxygen 24 hours a day. Last year, one of her doctors told her she would have only two years to live because of the severity of her lung condition.

She requires weekly medical visits and lives on $812 a month from Social Security Insurance.

Del Rio said she was particularly touched by a phone call she received from someone starting up a research firm who was interested in hiring her part time.

"I never thought I'd be able to work again," Del Rio said. "I'd love to be able to work again."

Jim Jackson, president of the San Diego Rescue Mission, said Del Rio's story struck a chord with the public.

"I think she is a demonstration that homeless people are like us," Jackson said. "She is an example of someone, who with no fault of her own, found (herself) in dire straits."

Jackson said charitable giving is down for the last months of this year at his and other nonprofits after the public made donations to victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Pakistani earthquake and the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Donations at the Rescue Mission are down $230,000 from the same period last September, October and November, Jackson said. The mission has a $12 million annual budget, of which $4.4 million comes from cash donations.

The outpouring of concern for Del Rio shows that people overcame "disaster fatigue" and were willing to donate to a local individual in need during the holidays, he said.

"This is the time of year when you think about others," Jackson said. "People are generous and they want to help."

John Thelen, project director at the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, agreed that the holiday season played a role in the support for Del Rio. It may also indicate the "giving curve" may be on the way up again.

"But more than that, this is a feel-good story," Thelen said of Del Rio. "Some people may be giving and thinking that if she has a better future, she may reach back and help others who are homeless."

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