Accessible Travel For Gabby

Gabby is a sweet 12  year old, She has been through so much in her short life so far. She has been on life support about a half dozen times but so far has always defied the odds! We are in need of some help to purchase a van to be modified to help make life a lot easier!

Gabby has special needs and is in a wheelchair, She has encephalopathy, suspected mito, progressive generalized cerebral atrophy since age 3, hypotonia, muscle weakness, global developmental delay, adrenal insufficiency, anxiety, compromised immune system, osteopenia, prn o2, gtube, cecostomy tube, mitrofanoff for cathing, a port a cath and AFOs.

We are in need of help getting a van suitable to transfer Gabby to and from places such as doctor, hospital, therapy appointments and out and about in the community. She is a big baseball fan so we enjoy going to watch our local college baseball team and Gabby also plays on our local Miracle League team! I am having to lift her to help her get in/out of our current van, Transferring from carseat to wheelchair and back to carseat is hard. Lifting the portable ramp we are currently using to put her chair in is also very heavy and is causing a lot of back pain.

Our current van cannot be modified because of high mileage and condition. Check engine light is on and we have already done work to it and something else comes up when 1 thing is fixed.

She will be safer sitting in her customized wheelchair... Less risk of injury transferring, better quality of life being able to go more places.. Makes going to doctors and hospital appointments easier.. Dont have to wake her up if shes sleeping.. When shes having increased seizures she sleeps more so it would help not having to wake her up to transfer. Her wheelchair can be reclined so her head doesn't fall over like it does in carseat making breathing easier on days she doesnt feel well. She gets tired easily especially if we are out so she can sleep in her wheelchair if we can get an accessible van! It would also be safer by not being exposed to weather as much.. Currently when it rains she gets much wetter because I have to use the ramp to get wheelchair out then put ramp up getting her really wet then having to transfer her into wet wheelchair.. If we had a modified van she'd already be in wheelchair and ramp would be automatic so could just roll her out and go. The ramp would automatically go back up resulting in getting out of rain faster and decreasing chance of getting sick. Same with cold/hot, I could get her in/out faster. 

If she were able to ride in her wheelchair all of her stuff would be right there on the back and not have to take stuff on/off like I do now. If she needs o2 or hooked up to feeding pump I would have to move it from chair in the back to her carseat but if she were to ride in her wheelchair it would stay on it making going places easier.

A modified van would just make life sooo much easier on all of us!

I am looking to get a really good used newer van with low mileage, Insurance will help with modifications but will not help with actual van purchase.

Please donate and share with your friends and other pages! PLEASE help us out! If we raise more money than needed to purchase the van, the rest will be used to help with van upkeep, gas and other needs for Gabby as they arise. 

Facebook.com/GabbysAngels627