story tip or letter to editor?

[dreamers]

We are trying to help our "chosen family" (unofficial but for everything but legal stuff they are family). We chat anywhere from 2-6 hrs a day, share holidays, bdays,...etc. I am even in the process of making them my emergency decision people.

Anyway they're in the UK and on retirement pension. One of the couple needs dental work badly but the dentist says he wants to do it in hospital.
Near Easter of this yr, half the work was done but they are still waiting for a hospital appointment to do the other half.

so I went online looking for " free dental work UK" just so I could give Daniel ( name he uses online ) options for his wife jane ( not her real name either).

I found an article that said dental schools do free work. This got me thinking if I write to this newspaper and they print the story maybe NHS will be motivated to um ... " find" an open spot in the hospital schedule for jane faster.

So do I write a letter to the editor in response to the article on dental students? or would it be better to use the paper's tip page to alert them to a "human interest story?

more of my thought process on this is below. Thanks. sorry this is so long.

Because of many factors I think this story could make a great Human Interest story that touches on cultural debates such as the proper structure of a family/alternate family structures and the feasibility of deeply connecting with people online.

Some of the features of this story that lend it to the human interest area are:
1. I have a number of physical challenges and I am in grad school. So, I am on SSI and can't afford to help Jane myself.

2 how we met just by chance online 10 yrs ago and this family has changed my life.

3 my foo dad sucked and daniel is the first "real dad" i have had. He is teaching me life skills others missed, he is also trying to help me get launched in my career.

4 he came to see my undergrad commencement all the way from London even though he and Jane are on a fixed income

thanks for reading and any feedback

[The People]

Why can you not tell them directly? The challenge of writing a newspaper article is that the students would be bombarded with people, some of whom don't qualify. This is a common service offered by dental schools. At least it is so in Canada.

[dreamers]

I have told my family but my thought was if I write to a newspaper it might help get Jane an appointment through normal channels faster since dan thinks that she might be nervous about having a student do it. Like maybe an article might be seen by someone who is high enough up the ladder to get something done

[nats]

hi dreamers,
we live in the uk and the nhs is so overstretched right now that i don't think a letter in a newspaper would help (we're not saying don't do it, just that in our opinion it won't solve the problem you have). public health and dental care have been grossly underfunded for years and everyone here is struggling with this.

[dreamers]

Nats,
Any suggestions about what would help? Underfunded or not they should not just leave a senior to live on soup and mashed potatoes for 6 months! There should be a priority system like in the er. If I had a great job I would put money in dans PayPal account and just get it squared away but I don't right now

[nats]

they do prioritise, and unlike most US care it's not based on how much money you have but on medical need. the system is being destroyed because it's being starved of funds by bad govt policy. i don't have a brilliant solution for you. even if you were able to get your friend to the front of the queue, that would mean someone else in greater need would have to wait longer. the quickest solution would be for her to pay for private dental care, like everybody in the US does, but that is expensive. maybe you could set up a gofundme account?

[Cammy]

As an ex-paramedic I have learned a few things about how to get care faster. One of the ways to get higher up on the list is simply to start having 'more serious problems' directly related to the teeth issue. Start snooping around medical texts and find stuff like severe unremittingly pain, severe weight loss resulting in depressed immune system, stomach problems from the mushy diet. The thing is, when your current medical issues start costing the system a lot of money because you have to wait for an opening, they often push you up the list. Also, if the problems can be potentially life-threatening, they push you up the list. It comes down to the cold facts of dollars & cents, and also liability issues for them. These are the two areas in which the system can be pressured.

Wish your friends good luck for me. The above issues will have to be consistently documented by a doctor, so make sure they are prepared to start making more frequent visits. I hope this all works out for them. As far as a letter to the editor goes, I wouldn't waste my time. Unless the stuff you are writing about is extraordinarily sensational, it will likely not get a second glance. This is a sad fact of the kind of world we live in right now.

Best wishes . . . Igraine

[dreamers]

Thanks igraine. These people are more than just friends they are the ones who have shown me how family works and that I have value. We were adopted at birth and we are chr so we believe there was a higher power and that higher power actually planned for us to be adopted by Daniel not by the people who adopted us. We think human free will or something else messed up the plan. Dan is the only person we have ever called daddy. So it's hurts so much to see him and Jane go through this we offered gofundme but Dan said no it would embarrass Jane. If I could I would quietly give them the money.
Nats it's hard to imagine someone with greater need I guess it is possible but they removed half of her teeth at Easter and the plan was for that to heal them other half out then dentures. So for over 6 months she had had no teeth on the right and constant pain and on and off infection in the left teeth I have littles asking if we can give her some of our teeth and if that would fix it

[Cammy]

Your littles offering your teeth is just the sweetest thing I've ever heard. Give them a big hug for me. Bless their sweet generous souls! Awwww!