In the few weeks since former XOMG POP! star Leigha Sanderson announced she was setting up a GoFundMe account to pay off medical expenses for her mother, Anjie Sanderson, sympathetic donors contributed $1000s to date, and the amount keeps growing.
The generous reaction of Leigha’s fans was both immediate and inspiring. The GoFundMe account was set up to help the family pay medical expenses related to her treatment for a tumor in the frontal lobe lining of her brain. Today that fund is approaching its $10,000 goal.
Leigha, you may remember, had earned a slot with popular Singer/Dancer JoJo Siwa’s girl band XOMG POP! only to be let go months later. What a blow that must have been for the family, especially after Anjie had given up her livelihood to let Leigha chase her dreams.
Since that time, Anjie has been working as Leigha’s “momager,” trying to line up work for her talented daughter. It’s been a struggle, and now Anjie’s latest health problems only make it worse.
According to the GoFundMe, Anjie doesn’t have health insurance to handle expenses. That’s why they need the crowdfunding.
Does Leigha’s father Cody, an employee at a Texas government agency, have health insurance? That’s not clear. One assumes he does, otherwise Anjie would not be able to receive any kind of treatment at all for her brain tumor. Where they come up short, according to Leigha’s GoFundMe statement, is paying for MRI’s, neurosurgery visits, and other expenses not covered by insurance.
It makes you wonder if there was any plan at all for unexpected out-of-pocket expenses, especially considering Leigha’s spina bifida history.
Or if Cody didn’t have insurance, did he check out Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act)? A plan like that is tailor made for struggling families who can’t afford individual policies.
In short, should they have been better prepared financially? Should they have stored up more savings before Anjie shut down her business and ran off to California with Leigha in search of stardom?
Was she blinded by stories of performers who hit it big and scored huge financial success? Did she know what a long shot that was, or the odds Leigha was facing?
Statistics show that the vast majority of entertainers never see much success at all. According to Chartmetric, a company that tracks success rates among singers and dancers, 99.9% of those who seek to make it on the national scene are still ranked as “undiscovered” or “developing” a year later.
Of course, Leigha did make the JoJo’s girl band team—and that’s something she can be super proud of. But when she was let go from the team, she was back in the trenches with thousands of other performer wannabes.
But here’s an even bigger question that some are asking: Is Anjie, now suffering from a brain tumor and having no experience in the entertainment business other than as a XOMG stage mom, the right person to continue managing her daughter’s career?
Would it make sense for Anjie to concentrate upon regaining her own health right now, and putting that ahead of Leigha’s career? Now that they’re back in Texas, will waiting a year or two hurt Leigha’s chances to pursue her dreams? What advice would Leigha’s fans give her?
In other words, what’s really important to this family? A brain tumor is not to be ignored. Is Anjie’s health more critical than Leigha’s career? What about the needs of Leigha’s siblings to have a healthy mom in their daily lives—also important?).
These are tough questions for parents to answer, especially when success seems so close at hand. Off the dance stage and beyond the bright lights, the Sandersons have some decisions to make.
