Friends and customers fund-raise for Bob Haines, a restaurant-supply manager who needs a lung transplant

If you’re a Philadelphia-area chef, owner, or manager of a restaurant, catering operation, or food truck, chances are decent that you have bought supplies from Bob Haines, a longtime manager at the Restaurant Depot store in East Falls.

Until last Jan. 24 — the day that Haines, 57, was diagnosed with COVID-19 that ravaged his lungs and stopped working.

Now, after doctors told him that he needs a double lung transplant, his friends and customers are rallying around him. But before he is put on a transplant list, Haines said, he has been told that he must show proof that he can fund his post-surgical care. That could cost $11,000 to $15,000 a year out of pocket, Haines said.

His friends have started a fund-raising campaign on HelpHopeLive.org.

Keith Taylor, a caterer and restaurateur, called Haines “a good man who will always go the extra mile to get us whatever we need.“ Haines specializes in smallwares — dishware, utensils, glassware, and such.

Josh Kim, owner of Spot Burgers, said Haines is “personable” and “a pleasure to work with.”

Haines started as a line cook in his teens and worked in kitchens during and after high school. He got married and had two sons. But when his first marriage ended, Haines said “it wasn’t feasible to work 10- and 12-hour days on a Saturday and Sunday as a single father.” He traded cooking for the stable hours of sales. His sons are now 32 and 27.

He joined Restaurant Depot nearly 18 years ago, a little more than a year after he married his wife, Dawn.

“Right now, it doesn’t feel like I’m married to my wife,” he said last weekend. “It feels like I’m married to this oxygen machine.”

Haines has been on oxygen since the initial diagnosis of bilateral pneumonia. After weeks passed with no improvement, a biopsy was ordered. It showed that he had interstitial lung disease, as well as mild emphysema and scarring. He was a longtime smoker, but he said he had quit 17 years ago. He said he received his first COVID vaccine after he was diagnosed.

He is undergoing tests and hopes to go before a review board soon to see if can qualify for a transplant.

“I’ve known since May that I’m going to need it,” he said. But he chose to keep the word about his condition quiet. “Nobody really knew what was going on with me except my higher-ups in the company until the end of August, beginning of September, when I finally was able to swallow this pill and be able to talk about it.”

Haines said he has been inspired by members of a support group on Facebook, particularly one man who had a double lung transplant nearly 2½ years ago. “He’s doing phenomenal. He’s run two 5Ks, one in May and one in August. I talk to him offline. He’s very, very big in supporting me and uplifting me.”