A fund that saves lives needs us to save its life.

Virginia's Uninsured Medical Catastrophe Fund (UMCF) had a balance of less than $24,000 when January became February. Enough only to add people to a waiting list between now and some time after July 1-if $225,000 remains in Gov. McDonnell's budget when the General Assembly funds fiscal year 2012-13. But not enough to get anybody off that waiting list. And it is a waiting list of people who cannot wait.

The UMCF, the only one of its kind in the nation, was created by the General Assembly in 1999 and exists solely to save lives by providing life-saving treatment for qualified uninsured Virginians facing a medical catastrophe. Most of those who have received funding for medical treatment were suffering from cancer.

The Fund was conceived in Farmville by two friends-one of them the late Mrs. Sarah E. Terry-who took their idea to legislators after learning of a Virginia woman diagnosed with breast cancer and left untreated for more than a year because she was uninsured. The UMCF can receive direct donations at any time of the year and right now our donations could produce enough funding to allow it to provide for the needs of new applicants while the UMCF awaits the new state appropriation. The UMCF can also receive funding as a tax check-off on Virginia Income Tax forms.

It is important to note that support for the UMCF in the General Assembly and the Governor's Office has been completely bipartisan. Republicans and Democrats have been equally supportive.

Two governors, in fact, have saved the Fund, responding to an emergency request, and brought funding forward from an upcoming fiscal year to the then-current year. The Democratic Governor Tim Kaine advanced the $225,000 from the 2008-09 fiscal year back in December of 2007 and Republican Governor Bob McDonnell did the same thing for the UMCF last year.

Prior to that, it was Governor Jim Gilmore, of the GOP, who approved a strategy that got the UMCF-creating legislation into the General Assembly's one-day reconvened session for the required vote in April of 1999. And Governor Mark Warner, a Democrat, promoted the UMCF with a proclamation of Virginia's Uninsured Medical Catastrophe Fund Day on April 7, 2002.

When they were in the General Assembly, State Senator Edd Houck, a Democrat, and our own Clarke N. Hogan, Republican House of Delegates member, were always budget conferees, making those last-minute decisions, and they always worked together for the UMCF. House Speaker William Howell and Prince Edward County's House member James Edmunds-both Republicans-have been crucial the past two years, as has GOP Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling.

Clearly, the UMCF is no us-against-them political football. It has received crucial support from both political parties and now it needs all of us.

More than 100 Virginians have received life-saving medical treatment through the UMCF since it completed the regulatory process and, through the state's Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) which administers the Fund, began receiving applications ten years ago.

With modest, though essential, state funding the UMCF has achieved much. More than 100 Virginians, their families and loved ones would tell you it has achieved everything.

The UMCF is like The Little Engine That Could and there are people on the train that thank God the train's passenger cars aren't empty.

Can we join together and donate enough to allow more people to board this life-saving train?

I think we can.

I think we can.

Checks should be made payable to: DMAS-Uninsured Medical Catastrophe Fund.

And mailed to:

Uninsured Medical Catastrophe Fund

Department of Medical Assistance-Fiscal Unit

600 East Broad Street

Suite 1300

Richmond, Virginia 23219

For those of us who knew and loved Sarah Terry, whose life had such a positive impact on so many people's lives in Farmville, Prince Edward County, the Fifth Congressional District and the Commonwealth, let us give our donation in her memory, and her honor.

I know we can.

-JKW-