Van Wheelchair Conversion for Kaitlyn

I would like to take a moment of your time to tell you a bit about our little girl Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn is a 5 year old girl who is now full of big smiles and happiness, but it wasn't easy getting to this. Kaitlyn was born 5 weeks premature due to pregnancy complications and was quite ill when she was born. She had to stay in the NICU for 3 weeks but finally was healthy enough to go home. Home was tough, she just didn't seem like she was improving, and so over the course of 6 months there were multiple specialists’ doctor appointments and hospital visits. In February of 2009 we finally found an answer to what we had been trying hard to find out what was going on. She was first diagnosed with Diabetes Insipidus, which prompted the specialists to further look into what was causing this and an MRI confirmed that she has Semi-Lobar Holoprosencephaly. This is a neurological disorder in which her brain was formed but did not separate into the full 4 hemispheres like a normal brain. So we received the news that there comes along with a lot of unknown with this diagnosis and that we had a long journey ahead of us.

            We saw many specialists to help us get a better idea of what to expect, but she still did not seem like she was getting much better with the suggested treatments. With further testing we found out she had a tumour in her abdomen called Neuroblastoma. They resected the tumour and it was benign! But only a few short months later we were informed that the Neuroblastoma had come back. This time it resulted in 8 intense rounds of Chemotherapy and multiple surgeries, and all the complications that come along with it. It was a long 10 month stay at B.C. Children's Hospital without coming home and many more hospital stays for the years after.

 
            But we are very happy to say that Kaitlyn is on the road to a happy, healthy life and is mostly able to stay home with the help of nursing staff and doctors.

 
            To ensure that Kaitlyn lives a happy fulfilled life we needed to adapt her living environment to maximize Kaitlyn's potential and keep her home with us. We did renovate our house to make it accessible for her wheelchair and other equipment so we can still manage her daily care. We also were able to get her a hospital grade bed to keep her safe because she had outgrown her bed and has injured herself multiple times.

 
            We also love to go on outings as a family, but we are finding it very difficult to transfer her and her wheelchair without having an accessible vehicle. We are in the process of purchasing a Van, but we will need to get the wheelchair conversion done ourselves. This is a very costly process and we are seeking some financial assistance to aid us in converting our vehicle to make it safe and accessible.

 
            We want to be able to bring Kaitlyn together with our family and continue to see her big beautiful smile and her beaming with happiness when she is able to enjoy family life.

 
             I want to thank-you for your time and consideration. This means a lot to our family.

 
Sincerely;

 the Sidhu family