Help Us Help Molly Holzschlag

Molly Holzschlag (Photo credit: Martin Kliehm)

“If Tim Berners-Lee is the father of the Web, than Molly Holzschlag is its fairy godmother.”

Who is Molly Holzschlag?

Molly E. Holzschlag has changed the world in many ways. She is the author of over 30 books on web design, CSS, accessibility, web standards, and more. Molly has helped to establish many of the web standards used today by working with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Standards Project (WaSP). She worked directly with CERN, AOL, Microsoft, BBC, Opera, and Netscape to ensure browsers support modern standards.

Recently, Molly has been working with the CSS Accessibility Community Group and Knowbility to emphasize the importance of inclusive design on the Internet to overcome accessibility barriers for people with disabilities. The San Francisco Chronicle named Molly Holzschlag as one of the Top 10 Most Influential Women in Technology.

Molly has changed the world several times over.

What’s Happened to Molly?

In April, Molly was diagnosed with a rare liver condition, which ravages her internal organs causing fatigue, dizziness, confusion, loss of appetite, and weakness. Immediately, Molly was put on a very restrictive diet, vitamin regimen, and chemo-therapy. According to her doctors, Molly needs to continue with another 6-9 months of chemo-therapy to go into full remission. Molly’s doctors told her that she could not work, while undergoing this extreme treatment.

Molly was employed as contractor.

Molly was able to receive insurance coverage until November 1, 2013. She does have a one month supply of pills. The monthly cost of her chemo-therapy is about $2,000 and COBRA is an additional $500. With a long recovery expected and the inability to work, Molly needs our financial support. With no immediate family, Molly has no one to turn to (except us).

How You Can Help Out

We know it is a tough time for many people. Here is how you can help.

1. Give whatever you can at the Help Us Help Molly site. (It’s very easy to donate and secure.)
2. Spread the word. Blog this, tweet this, re-tweet this.
3. Help find a donor (maybe a generous company or individual will match your donation).
4. Run a workshop and send the money to this campaign.

For many of us, we have purchased many of the books that Molly has written. Consider a donation of $25 or more, which is like purchasing one of Molly’s book.

Molly has changed the world several times over. It is now time for us to change her world.