Mila Marie Villanova was two-years-old when she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and started chemotherapy treatment. Her parents were heartbroken. Mila’s mother took leave from work to care for her daughter and, while they had medical insurance, the family needed help covering out-of-pocket expenses and the accumulation of medical-related costs.

More than 150 people collectively raised $20,000 to help Mila Marie.

The Villanova family is part of an epidemic of millions of people around the world who need help paying medical bills. Treatment costs are high, and insurance companies often only begin to cover the direct costs of care, let alone the incremental costs such as travel to treatment and follow-up caregiving. In the U.S, there are more than 40 million people with unpaid medical bills and health care costs are the number-one cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States!

Crowdfunding proved an effective aid for the Villanova family, as well as thousands of others who have turned to the Internet to raise money for medical expenses.

Given the scope of this challenge, this is likely just the beginning and crowdfunding is uniquely positioned to help hundreds-of-thousands of additional patients and their families. In fact, since 2012, Indiegogo has experienced consistent demand and triple-digit growth in the personal cause category leading to a site that is focused solely on life events. There are no signs of this trend slowing down.

On the individual level, we are providing an easy way for people to raise money and rally supporters. On a system-wide level, people struggling with medical bills don’t have to wait for legislative health care reform or dramatic changes in health care costs to access the help they need.

Indiegogo Life offers a free and easy way for patients and their families to raise money for medical expenses on the Internet. Our mission is to empower every person who is directly or indirectly impacted by medical expenses to raise funds online. So, we’ve made medical fundraising as easy as the ABCs:

The first 8 letters are all you need to start a fundraiser!

Indiegogo Life is now Generosity by Indiegogo: the only socially conscious fundraising platform that’s free, fast, and open, giving individuals and organizations the power to improve lives everywhere. Find out more about Generosity at www.generosity.com.