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People in Lexington, whether they be neighbors, friends or someone met in passing on the street, may be in need of surgery but do not have the means to get the medical care they need.

Surgery on Sunday is a non-profit organization that works closely with partners in the surrounding community to provide income-eligible individuals with the essential outpatient surgical procedures that they may need. Eligible patients are referred to Surgery on Sunday by free clinics.

Dr. Andrew Moore II, a plastic surgeon for 30 years, started Surgery on Sunday to help those people that are so often overlooked because of their financial situation.

He made it his mission to find a way for the working poor to receive outpatient surgeries that they wouldn’t have received otherwise due to their inability to provide the necessary funds to cover the procedure.

Anna Taylor, executive director of Surgery on Sunday, said the impact the program is large and creates a feeling of hope in the community.

“We have a great impact on the community as we change people’s lives,” Taylor wrote in an email to the Kentucky Kernel. “We rid them of pain and disease and sometimes are able to return a patient back to work which improves their financial future.”

Taylor is Surgery on Sunday’s only full-time employee. The rest of the people who work with them, which is a group that is 400 plus, are volunteers. This group includes volunteer surgeons, physicians, nurses, scrub techs and other clinical providers. According to Taylor, the volunteers have donated over 92,000 hours of service over the past 11 years.

Surgery on Sunday operates solely in volunteer work and is always looking for more people to come out and help. More information regarding volunteer work can be found on their website at http://www.surgeryonsunday.org/volunteer/.

“We perform surgeries the third Sunday of each month at the Lexington surgery center,” Taylor wrote in the email. “Once approved, patients are provided a pre-op consult and if surgery is necessary, surgery and post-op care. We provide only outpatient surgeries that are medically necessary.”

Taylor also said that recently the program expanded and they now are collaborating with local dentists and Mission Lexington to provide a free dental day in the fall and spring because dental health remains one of the largest needs seen among patients.

Surgery on Sunday is also hosting an upcoming event, the Perfect 10-Miler, on March 12, which is a 10K race. All proceeds will go to benefit Surgery on Sunday. For more information and to register for the event go to http://www.surgeryonsunday.org/events/.

Moore’s dream became a reality, and now Surgery on Sunday has been able to help 5,700 people since it first began back in 2005, according to Taylor.

Anyone looking to receive care from Surgery in Sunday expect to be scheduled for surgery 30-60 days after referral. The program is actively looking for other surgical centers to become partners to help even more people get the care that they need.

Aspen Gage contributed to this report.