Wheelchair For My Father
Donation protected
My name is Jamie Neilsen and I am hoping to raise money for my father, Donald, who suffers from Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD). He was diagnosed when he was twenty-three years old. Being a U.S. Army veteran, he knows what sacrifice is and living with this disease is no different.
He worked in a factory and supported his family when he was diagnosed. I am the oldest of three boys. When he wasn't working, he enjoyed spending his time being outside: hunting, fishing, splitting wood and shooting his bow. He always cultivated his own vegetable garden and truly embraced the "living off the land" mentality.
When he was forty, his disease forced him to stop working and slowly began to alter his life. His legs and arms became weaker. There was a day when he tried pulling back his bow and he could not do it. He was too weak to pull it back. That devastated him.
He is fifty-six now and needs assistance from using his wheelchair consistently. My mother is home to prepare meals and assist him with daily living skills. They did have a stair lift installed so he can go down in the basement and reload bullets, tend to his wood stove and attempt to maintain some sort of normalcy to his life. He does still enjoy being outside and has adapted to gardening in tall buckets so he can reach them. He has deer feeders on his property and some are deeper in the woods. My mother has to fill them in the winter because he can't get down to them in the winter with his motorized wheelchair. He has also since become a grandfather in which he enjoys spending time outside with my daughters, gardening, picking berries and teaching them about nature.
When I was working in New Hampshire last year, I had heard of this company that makes all-terrain track driven wheelchairs, called the Action Trackchair at Chappell Tractor. I checked it out and told my father about it. It would enable him to travel in the mud and snow to fill his feeders and to bring more mobility to his life! Unfortunately it is very expensive, hence our story being told here for you to read. Our family would be so grateful for any thoughtful donations to assist in my father's journey in living with muscular dystrophy.
He worked in a factory and supported his family when he was diagnosed. I am the oldest of three boys. When he wasn't working, he enjoyed spending his time being outside: hunting, fishing, splitting wood and shooting his bow. He always cultivated his own vegetable garden and truly embraced the "living off the land" mentality.
When he was forty, his disease forced him to stop working and slowly began to alter his life. His legs and arms became weaker. There was a day when he tried pulling back his bow and he could not do it. He was too weak to pull it back. That devastated him.
He is fifty-six now and needs assistance from using his wheelchair consistently. My mother is home to prepare meals and assist him with daily living skills. They did have a stair lift installed so he can go down in the basement and reload bullets, tend to his wood stove and attempt to maintain some sort of normalcy to his life. He does still enjoy being outside and has adapted to gardening in tall buckets so he can reach them. He has deer feeders on his property and some are deeper in the woods. My mother has to fill them in the winter because he can't get down to them in the winter with his motorized wheelchair. He has also since become a grandfather in which he enjoys spending time outside with my daughters, gardening, picking berries and teaching them about nature.
When I was working in New Hampshire last year, I had heard of this company that makes all-terrain track driven wheelchairs, called the Action Trackchair at Chappell Tractor. I checked it out and told my father about it. It would enable him to travel in the mud and snow to fill his feeders and to bring more mobility to his life! Unfortunately it is very expensive, hence our story being told here for you to read. Our family would be so grateful for any thoughtful donations to assist in my father's journey in living with muscular dystrophy.
Organizer
Jamie Neilsen
Organizer
Warren, MA
