When you imagine a typical kid’s day, you think of him or her excitedly jumping out of bed to play sports, ride a bike, or raid the snack cabinet when mom’s not looking. What you don’t imagine — and don’t want to imagine — Is wanting to play in the park, but not being able to tell anyone. Or longing to eat an ice cream cone, but being unable to hold one. That isn’t an imaginary world for Alexandros Kallergis. That is his reality.

Alexandros is a 3 year-old boy — one of twins — who wakes up every morning with a smile on his face. He has a kind and sensitive heart and a huge passion for music. He loves listening to his mom, Olga, passionately play the piano. And he amazes those around him by recreating the same rhythms his mom just performed by banging his fists on the kitchen counter.

If only the joy he finds in music could be found in his everyday life. At 3 years old, Alexandros has had seven surgeries. He is developmentally delayed, cannot speak, is unable to walk, cannot hold a spoon, and the list goes on. Even harder for his mom is that now Alexandros is beginning to realize his challenges, and he is finding it hard to understand why he has them.

Alexandros and Marios  were born prematurely at 28 weeks. Alexandros weighed 1.150 grams (approximately half a pound) at birth. Both boys spent their first four months of life in the intensive care unit. Early on, Alexandros suffered a brain hemorrhage. Doctors believed he would overcome it. But nothing about Alex’s health went as planned. As numerous blood clots began to dissolve in his brain, one clot got stuck in the part where the brain fluid exists. This resulted in hydrocephalus, an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Along with an increased pressure inside the skull, hydrocephalus causes many serious effects, including poor balance, mental impairment and seizures. At three months old, neurosurgeons started drawing fluid from Alexandros’ brain every day in an effort to give his brain time to recuperate. But Alexandros body rejected it. Instead, a brain shunt then had to be inserted to do the work his brain could not.

The hemorrhage also caused significant damage to Alexandros’s brain’s white matter causing him to suffer infantile spasms. And at 6 months old Alexandros and Marcos were both diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. This would result in Alexandros not being able to walk. And for both boys, it means being taken by their mother to physical therapy, swim therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and hippotherapy — six days a week.

This reality is one that would be too much for almost anyone to handle. But Olga somehow pulls through. A single mother and the only financial provider to her children, she is physically and emotionally exhausted but keeps fighting. She knows she must. Because she watches her son. And Alexandros has the determination and will of a Greek Warrior. She sees him drag himself across the room to find a toy to play with. She watches him pull himself up on furniture and be overjoyed about standing so long as he has something to hold onto. She feels his frustration when he lets go and he loses his balance and falls… every time. She knows that sometimes Alexandros loses his courage as he puts his head on the floor buried under his arms and cries out in disappointment. But it does not last long. She watches as Alexandros gets up and tries again and again and again. And so he — at three years old — inspires her to keep hoping too.

There is hope. Washington University Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri performs a rare surgery called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy. It is a surgery that would be life changing for Alexandros and Olga. It would let Alexandros walk. But Alexandros and Olga live in Greece and after having 15 surgeries she has exhausted her finances. The surgery itself costs $46,245 and requires a month stay. Travel costs (airfare, hotels, basic living expenses) would easily add another $10,000. And just like Alexandros’ medical issues — where complications have complications — so does this entire medical process. The hospital won’t schedule the surgery until all the costs are paid upfront. The embassy won’t issue Olga a visa until the hospital schedules the surgery. And on it goes.

With these complications, we know the time pressure we are under to help Alexandros. We learn from him and keep trying, keep pulling ourselves up. We first want to raise the necessary funds to schedule the surgery. We have set up a campaign at Go Fund Me. https://gofund.me/ca74cfd8 Any donation at all will help towards Alexandros’ needs. It’s the first step — a big step — to Alexandros being able to pull himself up, let go, and finally stand on his own. Please consider donating any amount to let this happen.

Alexandros’ journey through life has been filled with many challenges, countless hospital stays, daily therapy sessions and too many painful surgeries for a 3-year old to endure. Despite all of this, Alexandros wakes up every day with a smile on his face and mimics back the actions that his mom and papou (grandfather) do. It’s those little things in life that most of us take for granted that keep Olga fighting to give her children as best of a life as possible. We look forward to the day when Alexandros wakes up, and instead of waiting to be noticed, excitedly jumps out of bed — like nearly every other kid — and runs into his mother’s arms.