By Matt Brady
1:05 a.m. MT May 8, 2008

How to help

The fundraiser/auction is open to the public and will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, May 8 at Lucky Joe’s Sidewalk Saloon. Donations may also be made to Rafiki at Wells Fargo under the Rafiki’s Journey Benefit Fund.

As a photojournalist for The Longmont Daily Times-Call, Jill Mott had grown accustomed to covering stories about down-on-their-luck families seeking help from the community.

The cameras tragically turned when her son Rafiki was diagnosed with lympoblastic leukemia. "March 18th was when I got the call," Mott said. "I received the dreaded 4 a.m. call that my son was in the hospital."

Used to covering stories that urge the community to help those in need, Mott now seeks help from others to help cover daunting medical costs. Lucky Joe's will be hosting an auction and fundraiser between 6 and 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 8 to assist Rafiki and his parents.

Rafiki had just embarked on a trip to Zimbabwe with his father Patrick Lindsell, a native of the country. Mott's husband and son had traveled there to visit Rafiki's grandparents while she stayed behind to work.

While visiting his grandparents, Rafiki fell ill and was transported to the hospital in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. Rafiki needed an emergency blood transfusion, which in Zimbabwe has a one in four chance of carrying a death sentence, as many of the patients who receive them contract the HIV virus. Fortunately, Rafiki did not.

After his treatment in Harare, Rafiki was transported to England where he was diagnosed with leukemia. Upon receiving the news, Mott immediately flew out to meet her husband and son.

"I was driving down to the airport. I was thinking, 'this is not me. I go and photograph other people's fundraisers. This is a story that we write about in our paper,'" Mott recalled.

Mott was only able to stay with her son temporarily before finances forced her to return to the states. Rafiki remained in England with his father where he currently undergoes chemotherapy treatments. He recently spent his second birthday in therapy.

"The prognosis is 80 to 90 percent that he will have a full recovery," Mott said. "He is already in remission but it is a three year treatment process."

It goes without saying that Mott finds great relief in the thought that Rafiki will be fully recovered by the age of 5. She hopes that his memories of his traumatic encounter with leukemia will fade as he gets older.

It will be harder to see the rising medical costs fade away. “I didn’t know how I was going to pay the bills and see if I could find a way to bring them back,” Mott said. Fortunately, Mott has great friends willing to help out with the costs.

“She’s an old friend, I’ve known Jill since I moved to Fort Collins,” Joe Vader, co-owner of Lucky Joe’s, said. Vader offered his bar to host a fundraiser as well as his services as an experienced auctioneer.

“I suggested that we do that because I’m the auctioneer every year for our annual Celtic Scramble, which is our golf tournament,” Vader said. “I’ve done it for 12 years. I said I could turn it into some readily available cash.”

Vader will also be donating all the tips that come over the bar to Mott’s family.

“There won’t be any profits because all the drinks will be coming through coupons that Lucky and I will be giving out,” Vader said. “(The patrons) are just encouraged to throw what would be more than a normal tip and all of that goes into the tip jar.”

Meanwhile, Mott has been pulling her own strings to give the auction as much flair as possible. New Belgium donated one of its custom bikes, which normally are only given to employees. The auction will also include a baseball bat signed by Troy Tulowitski, a baseball signed by Todd Helton, and a hockey stick signed by Joe Sakic.

The day after the fundraiser Mott will be hopping another flight to England to try and bring her family home. “I’ve been blessed in terms of community support all around and I feel very lucky and amazed at how the community has come out for a little boy that they may or may not know. My husband and son will know that coming back here will be a safe and supportive environment.”

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