A local Swift Current man is receiving donations that might be the deciding factor in if he lives or not.

Sammy Khalife is afflicted with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, a heart condition which runs in his family and has already taken Khalife's mother and two of his siblings.

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy affects the heart by making it less able to pump blood due to thickened portions of the heart.

The condition makes it so Khalife's heart only provides 25 per cent of the blood flow of a normal heart.

Khalife said that when he was diagnosed with this condition, doctors told him that he would have six months to live, and he has already gone two to three months into this period.

"It's really hard to know that your life might end before you get another heart, or the other option is to be hooked to a fake heart, a machine, so right now you have to have a lot of dark thoughts going through your mind, but I leave it to faith and believe that the only thing getting me through right now, I leave it to the greatest physician upstairs."

On August 25 an online GoFundMe donation page was set up by one of Khalife's friends to help support Khalife in his search for a new heart and has raised $8,305 of its $25,000 goal already.

Khalife said that being a resident of Swift Current for only three years, he was surprised by the outpouring of support he has received from the community.

"I'm just taken by surprise how the people reacted to it, and people have been extremely supportive, calling, checking in on me, visiting me, yesterday I came home to a very nice note from an older lady, she had put it under my door."

According to Khalife, the money from the donation page will be spent on paying bills while he is in Edmonton recuperating from surgery, rehabilitation, as he would not be able to work for about a year and a half after the surgery.

"You think you have the best benefits, you have the best health coverage, but there are a lot of things that are really needed that's not covered," he regretfully commented. "Without income, you probably wouldn't be able to cover it, so it's a challenge, but it is what it is, and I'll do the best out of that."

There are also various fundraisers planned in the community itself, including a steak dinner, and selling items at Market Square all to raise funds for Khalife.

Khalife also said that the support of the community is making this stressful time more manageable for him.

"I really want to thank our community here in Swift Current, those who show support emotionally, physically, financially, people who donate to the GoFundMe, or being part of any fundraiser, or any of those notes I got, or the phone calls from those I don't even know, that's really what's helping me get through it."