GIVE DEVON A LIFT
Time running out for accessible van effort
Time running out for accessible van fundraising effort.
A Whitney Pier mother is fighting time, trying to raise the necessary funds to buy a wheelchair-accessible van for her severely disabled son before a grant to help with the purchase expires next month.
Nichol MacNeil has been working for a couple of years, holding small fundraisers in an effort to raise money for the van which she needs to transport her son, nine-yearold son Devon. He has cerebral palsy, a feeding tube, a seizure disorder, is developmentally delayed and has other ongoing medical issues. Some of her fundraisers have included placing containers at grocery store checkout stands to collect donations, bottle donations and selling tickets on themed baskets at a Sydney flea market.
The family’s current van is not wheelchair-accessible.
The cost of a van that has already been modified is just under $50,000. Five months ago, MacNeil received a $20,000 disability grant from President’s Choice Children’s Charity, however it expires at the end of April. Under the grant’s guidelines, funding approval is valid for six months from date of approval. Because the mandate of that program
has since shifted from assisting those with disabilities to childhood hunger and nutrition education programs, MacNeil would not be able to reapply under that program once the grant expires.
After all of her efforts, MacNeil still has a fundraising shortfall of about $20,000.
“It’s hard to do any fundraising as it is, when you live the life that I live,” MacNeil said
in an interview Wednesday. “People don’t realize how difficult it is when I’m the only one managing everything and then trying to fundraise on top of it … I’ve had many cries, I’ve been stressing over it. It’s not easy.”
As a single mom, MacNeil has had to juggle her fundraising efforts around caring for both Devon and his 12-year-old brother Sean, who
has some health concerns of his own. And as Devon grows larger, the physical strain of having to lift him out of his wheelchair and into his car seat is taking its toll.
“It will be one less stress off my head, if I can start trying to check things off, hopefully life gets a little easier,” MacNeil said.
Devon has recently had some medical setbacks and
was just discharged after spending two weeks at the IWK in Halifax.
“He’s been sick with a number of different things for over five-and-a-half weeks now and things just don’t seem to be slowing down,” MacNeil said. “The worst part is not knowing what’s going on, we’re to the point now where he’s in pain all the time and he’s doing some abnormal movements.”
The stress associated with not knowing precisely what is causing Devon’s current health issues makes trying to meet the grant deadline even more of a challenge, she said.
Anyone wanting to assist MacNeil can reach her by email at elmo_1899@hotmail.com.