Sharon Collier had a strange feeling on her face when she woke up one morning.

Her life hasn’t been the same since.

“Her nose was hurting her so she looked in the mirror and there was like a zit on the side of her nose,” friend Jill Snow recalled. “So she cleaned it and as it progressed the pain became worse.”

Collier proceeded to see doctor after doctor, but her condition continued to get worse and worse. Eventually the affected tissue died, fell off and the area around it became infected.

“Look in the mirror and picture the end of your nose and one side of it gone,” Snow said. “And that’s where we are.”

Though it is not confirmed, the most likely culprit is a brown recluse spider. The symptoms point to that is the mostly likely reason for the trauma to Collier’s nose.

The former long-time waitress at Doc’s Seafood Shack in Orange Beach was, and continues to be devastated by the odd circumstances she finds herself in.

“She is physically and emotionally ill,” Snow added.

But, thanks to action by Snow and others, help, though slow in coming, is on the way. Snow and Collier’s co-workers Cindy Holden and Susan Eades, came up with an idea for a benefit account for their friend at Regions. Those wishing to make contributions can do so at any Regions Bank in Sharon Collier’s name.

After the train of doctors and tests, she finally landed at the McCollough Institute, a medical facility that has among its specialties, plastic surgery. Her lead physician there is Dr. Chi Ha.

When those at the institute heard of her predicament, they offered procedures for free. Now comes the challenge of raising money to help with expenses that are vital to the upcoming surgeries.

“She’s seeing the doctors at McCollough Institute and they are going to be able to reconstruct that nose,” Snow said.

Everywhere else she has turned for help has been pretty much a dead end. Medicaid said she didn’t qualify because she is currently buying her home and that disqualified her from eligibility.

She has exhausted every avenue of appeal toward qualifying for unemployment even though Doc’s management has not contested her claim.

The unemployment office says her’s is a medical issue. Collier received notice on Monday (Sept. 26) that her final appeal has been denied.

The only help she has received so far, besides donations to the benefit account, has been $200 a month in food stamps.

The hope on the medical horizon remains through the McCollough Institute.

“They’re not going to charge her for their work,” Snow said. “They’re just good people. Gaylon McCollough is a good man and those surgeons that he has in there are fabulous.

“We need a little bit of funding for the supplies, like a $1,000. And then it’s like $300 a night because she’ll have to have a special nurse. This is going to be a minimum of three surgeries and it could be as many as five to six.”

Until all that can be arranged, Collier must try to find a way to survive day to day and learn to cope.

“Her expenses run right at a thousand a month,” Snow said. “We’ve been getting donations, people have been donating. It’s helping, but it’s been kind of a struggle. She’s a very hard worker and she would work. She’s been looking, trying to find a stock position where she wasn’t out in the public. People would not understand.

“It’s sad, it’s very sad.”