“We never turn anybody away,” said Tony Williams, the organization’s mobility manager. “We might not be able to give someone a service away for free. ... We have to find balance; that’s something we work very hard at.”

But Conton says she’s asked for help. She and her social worker have applied for grants and she’s received some help paying for her dialysis, but she says it’s not enough. Because of her income from disability, she is ineligible for many aid programs, she says.

“We’ve looked into so many resources,” Conton said. “Everywhere I go, my income is too great ... [but] everything that I have goes into all of my bills.”

So on a Monday in November, she got behind the wheel of her car — despite being blind in her left eye and having limited vision in her right — to make the 3-mile drive to one of her three weekly dialysis appointments.

“I’m trying to stay alive. I’m trying not to give up. ... I don’t like doing wrong or driving without the law letting me, but I felt like I had no choice,” Conton said.

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