Moving on out!

Moving on out!

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is a progressive disorder. This means that as time passes, the patient loses more and more of their muscle function, and require more assistance and equipment.

Doug is 21 years old. While he still actively participates in motorcycle rides and car racing, he is not immune from the heartless progression of his DMD. As the years have passed, he has gone from needing a boost to get onto a motorcycle seat to needing to be lifted on with a winch powered sling. At home, he is on the edge of requiring a similar lift to get in and out of bed. Simple things like using the sink to brush his teeth, and taking a shower are about to get much more complex as his muscles slowly betray him.

At the same time – Doug is a young man that has earned the right to live more independently. In a society where our youth already face overwhelming barriers to moving out into their own space, Doug’s hurdles are even higher. Wheelchair accessible accommodation is both hard to find and very expensive. Long waitlists and compromises in lifestyle stand at every corner. Doug jokes that he’d be the youngest guy in the assisted living home – but we all know that wouldn’t be a good fit. They’d kick him out on his first day for doing brake stands in the handicapped parking spot in his Dodge Charger!

The Penner’s house has a full basement suite already in it. The stairlift installed (thank you RFD supporters!) does go all the way down to the suite. The Penners are already removing the carpet and replacing the flooring with powerchair friendly floors.

Our plan is to set up the suite with a second powerchair (which stays in the suite), and use the existing stairlift to move Doug up and down between floors. What we need to add are some additional ceiling lift points to facilitate these transfers, and some bathroom renovations to make it wheelchair shower friendly.

This year’s RFD fundraising is to buy those piece of equipment to transfer Doug from the main floor down into the basement safely – and to make the bathroom accessible.

(If this arrangement turns into a long term solution, we will have a separate project to build an exterior lift to bring Doug and his powerchair in and out without transferring. This is the most expensive piece of the puzzle.)

Donations made on the GoFundMe page (here) are not tax receiptable. They will be added to the RFD equipment savings fund and used to pay for suite accessibility renovations.

Tax receiptable Donations for Muscular Dystrophy Canada can be made online through the Donate Now link on the Ride For Doug Website

We are hoping to collect as many donations online as possible. Read this for more details.

Thank you in advance for your generosity.