An 81-year-old man in The Colony, Texas, kept working as a luggage delivery contractor to pay for his wife’s cancer treatment because, in his words, it was the only job that would hire him. When strangers found out, they raised more than $700,000 for the couple. Then GoFundMe shut the campaign down and started refunding the money.
Donald Johnson was delivering a lost suitcase up a steep flight of stairs when resident Erin Howell saw him struggling on her doorbell camera and came outside to help. That’s when she learned he’d been doing this work as an independent contractor for three years to cover medical bills for his wife, Josephine Johnson, who has pancreatic cancer. The two have been married 57 years.
“It’s the only job that will hire me,” Johnson told Howell, according to FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth.
Howell posted the story online and started a fundraiser. It worked. Thousands of strangers donated and sent messages of support. Johnson told FOX 4 the response meant he might finally be able to stop working and stay home with his wife.
“I think I’m going to be able to stop working, and that’s amazing. So we’re not quite totally over the hump yet, but we’re getting there very quickly.”
Josephine Johnson said the flood of donations and prayers changed how she faced her diagnosis.
“I can face it. I think that’s the big difference. Some have made comments and they’re praying for us. And it’s just — it’s a joyful feeling.”
Then the money vanished from the family’s reach. In a TikTok video, the couple’s daughter, Amy Johnson, said the campaign had topped $700,000 — but that her parents would never see a dollar of it. GoFundMe was refunding every donation, she said, over what she called “a technicality.”
GoFundMe confirmed to FOX 4 that its trust and safety team found the organizer account and the fundraiser violated the platform’s terms of service. The company would not say what specifically triggered that finding, citing only its requirement that campaigns demonstrate “authenticity and transparency for donors.”
Fox News Digital reached out to both Amy Johnson and GoFundMe for further comment. Neither the exact reason for the takedown nor what happens next for the family has been made public.
