Hello Lance Mackey Mushing Fans-

As you have likely heard, Lance Mackey scratched from the 2016 Iditarod due to personal health concerns. If you follow him on Facebook, you know his fingers were infected. Well, they’re infected badly and are not getting any better without further treatment. Lance has accumulated well over $7000.00 in medical and dental bills so far with more to come.

The Lance Mackey Medical Fund (LMMF for short) in 2014 successfully raised enough donations to address Lance’s expensive dental work (you can read about that campaign here: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/3g2Dd). Lance was ever so grateful for everyone’s help - it made a huge difference and he was able to heal and continue to pursue his dream. With Lance’s fingers, and teeth, requiring further treatment, we are reaching out again for your help. Every little bit helps and we would be so grateful if you could help Lance out again to save his fingers. Due to the graphic nature of the finger photos, we will not be posting them here - you can see them on Lance’s Facebook Page.

Note that for IRS rules, these are “gifts” to Lance and your donations to the LMMF are NOT tax-deductible. LMMF uses your donations to pay for those medical expenses allowed by Publication 502 from the IRS, and for the minimal expenses of operating LMMF (PayPal and Fundrazr.com fees, banking fees, postage, etc.  The LMMF Board are all volunteers donating their time, talent and computers). IRS Rules in Pub. 502 allows for payment of Lance’s medical bills, reimbursement for mileage ($0.19/mile for travel to/from medical appointments), lodging when away from home (such as for the hyperbaric treatments in Anchorage, a generous $50.00 per night), and others you can read about here: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p502/ar02.html; and about the gift exemptions here:  https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/frequently-asked-questions-on-gift-taxes

If you prefer to donate to Lance directly, you can find his address on his Comeback Kennel website and send him a check. http://lancemackey.com/

Here’s an update from Lance (slightly edited) to let you know how he’s doing and what’s coming up this summer and next season:

Ok well I to finally got a full mouth of teeth this May 2nd. It's been three years since they pulled them all - it’s been a long road and I hope I’m done, but you never know. I had 2 months of hyperbaric treatments, then 6 months of healing before putting in the posts, and another 6 more months for them to set. Then came the molds, the temporary teeth (not to mention those awful dentures). Then they were able to put in the bottom set that are permanent. Those had to heal up and then be readjusted. So the dentist starts with the top set only to find out the posts were to short to hold them in so then we had to redo the top posts. Wait again for those to heal, take more molds, make the teeth and wait. May 2nd couldn’t have come soon enough! It’s actually been since 2001 since I had a full set of teeth.

Now there are my infected fingers. Who knew!? But I should have known better. I have Mersa in my fingers. This is the reason they had to remove my teeth, fear of infection. So here I now sit with a picc-line (A peripherally inserted central catheter or “PICC”) straight to the heart to administer some heavy duty antibiotics that were paid for by some of the last bit of money in the LMMF. It’s been 3 weeks so far and I have another 1 to 6 weeks of treatment. It looks like my fingers will be saved. The bad part is that I will always have issues with serious infection. So I’m going to need several expensive prescriptions forever to keep it at bay.

The great news --I have a badass team of young, big, mouthy, strong boys that will win many races this coming season. I only say that because it's true, not cocky. Good crew, good support (Thank YOU fans and Thanks to the LMMF), now all that's needed is a healthy driver. The dogs & I are so looking forward to snow.

Thanks to all who follow the sport I love, and my unpredictable dog-racing. If you can't get enough racing, I race a legends race car at North Pole Speedway every Thursday, starting May 21. Check it out.

Lance Mackey

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A BIG Thank YOU!  To Jeff Schultz for the use of the photo.