Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

Statehouse employees have scheduled a fund-raising luncheon Friday to help a co-worker’s daughter pay for diagnostic tests.

Employees of the Kansas Legislative Research Department and the Office of the Revisor of Statutes will be serving hotdogs, brats, hamburgers, chips, cookies, soft drinks and water from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the south side of the Statehouse.

Renae Jefferies works as a revisor. Her daughter, Veronica Jefferies, now 29, had cancer in her spine when she was 15. Doctors suspect the cancer may have returned.

Veronica Jefferies is divorced and rearing 4- and 6-year-old sons. She works part-time but cannot afford health insurance. She is not eligible for Medicaid.

“It’s been three months since she was told the cancer may have come back,” Renea Jefferies said. “But she can’t get the testing because she doesn’t have cash or insurance, so all this time if the cancer has come back it’s been spreading.

“All I can say is thank goodness for this fundraiser. I just hope we can raise enough to get the testing done.”

Jefferies other daughter, Jenna, died from cancer in 2002. She was 24.