Help Me Walk AGAIN! Horseback Riding

Hi my name is Christina Tilton. I created this GoFund Me Page to ask for help to raise money to help me have a chance to get into Therapeutic Horseback Riding. My dream is to walk again! Imagine waking up one morning and losing your ability to walk within 2 hours. That's exactly what happened to me. I was a normal teenager who loved Cheerleading, obeyed my parents, talked on the phone, hanging out with my friends, and was living what you would call a normal teenage life! Until July 3rd, 1999. I woke up in a lot of pain which continued to get worse as minutes went by. Feeling weak, My mom took me to the hospital to see what was causing the pain and weakness. Tests were done. Doctors told us a virus called Transverse Myelitis attacked my nervous system. By the time I was diagnosed I was completely paralyzed from the neck down! Doctors told us that I would never walk again and to prepare for a lifetime of physical care. We were shocked by the news but we didn't accept it! I responded back to the doctor and said "No, I refuse to accept what you are saying. I will fight to walk again no matter what I have to go through to get there! Plus, you are not Jesus and you did not walk on water, so therefore he has the last say in this situation!" I have been through a lot over the years and I have fought HARD in therapy to get where I am today. It has taking a lot of FAITH, a lot of Hard work and dedication and will continue to take all that in order for me to get back to walking again and that's OKAY with me because I'm still gaining strength every day. Yes, its been about 19 years this July but I'm NOT worried about it. My God has a plan for me! These past few years since 2015 I have noticed that I have been gaining muscle strength and regaining sensations back in my body more and more. I've been doing water therapy, chiropractic therapy and going to Level 11 physical therapy. This has helped me quite a bit in my recovery and one of my therapists at Level 11 mentioned that Horseback Riding would be a great opportunity for me to get myself into and that it has helped several of her patients build their strength back in their body. I'm thinking to myself Wow, this is a perfect way to help me regain a lot of my strength back in my legs, core, arms and will also help me work on my balance. Doing this kind of therapy will help me win my fight to walk again and so I can finally get rid of that wheelchair forever! I would like to do Horseback Riding as much as I able the next year or 2. This will help speed up my recovery. The horses are beautiful and are trained to help people with disabilities and are very gentle when a disabled person is riding on them. They have a indoor and outdoor arena and a lot of equipment to help a disabled person ride. The cost is $30 to $50 an hour depending on if I need side walkers as I ride the horse, plus having to have gas money to get there. I'm asking for a $2,000 to help cover the costs. This place is an hour away from my home near Lansing but is so worth the travel. I want to try and do this as long as I can so I can build my body up. I'm so excited about this and would love to do this and build my strength back up to walk again but unfortunately, my medical insurance will not help pay for something like this and I really can't afford to pay myself. So if you are able to donate and help me make my dreams of walking again come True. I will definitely Appreciate it! :) Any donation helps. Thank you for helping me have the opportunity to add Horseback Riding to my journey to walk again. May God bless you for your help in this. Thank you for your Support! Chrissy