Help Cheryl West Minister With Her Hands Again — A Journey of Faith and Recovery

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After surviving a hemorrhagic stroke, missionary Cheryl West is working hard to regain movement through specialized Neuro-IFRAH therapy not covered by insurance. Your prayers and support will help her continue healing.

Help Cheryl Continue Her Stroke Recovery Therapy

A Journey of Faith, Healing, and Hope

Cheryl West, for the past 21 years has served as a missionary in Southeast Asia with her husband and children. During those years, she found great joy in serving underprivileged communities as a health advocate and educator. Her background in physical therapy allowed her to assist many people with their health challenges through physical therapy and by applying the principles of NEWSTART and giving them encouragement and moral support.

She would often drive the project van to make home visits—sometimes by herself, sometimes with her children—to teach and demonstrate treatments people could use for their ailments. She loved living an active, hands-on life: caring for her family, cooking special dishes, playing the flute and piano, and joining her children in running, hiking, swimming, badminton, volleyball, and ultimate frisbee. She was a happy, independent wife, mother of four, and foster mother to several local children who became part of their family.

Life After Her Stroke

In December 2022, her life changed suddenly when she suffered a hemorrhagic stroke while still in Southeast Asia. It affected the entire left side of her body. By God’s grace, she survived and began the long journey of recovery.

Since her stroke in 2022, she’s made much functional progress. Her walking endurance has improved, and she can walk around for short distances but not in an efficient manner. However, her left hand and arm remain very limited, which makes daily tasks slow and difficult. We’re still praying and working toward Cheryl regaining more normal movement and independence.

Why Cheryl Needs This Therapy

The next step in Cheryl’s recovery is a specialized therapy called Neuro-IFRAH — an approach that is unmatched in helping stroke survivors regain functional movement and independence. This therapy focuses on real-life improvement rather than just isolated exercises, with personalized goals set between the therapist and the patient.

Unfortunately, Neuro-IFRAH therapy is not covered by insurance and must be paid completely out-of-pocket. Cheryl will need to travel to Long Beach from Fresno, California, where she and the family are currently staying, for an intensive four- to five-week rehabilitation program. After that, she may continue with one week of therapy per month, depending on progress.

Each session is expensive, plus travel, lodging, and custom therapeutic braces and splints will need to be provided for.

Goal: $100,000

Your support will help cover:

Every donation, big or small, brings her closer to functional use of her left hand and arm and walking more fluidly and moving with greater freedom again.

Cheryl’s Faith Keeps Her Going

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees…Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:3,6 KJV

These verses give Cheryl daily strength to keep believing that healing and purpose are attainable.

How You Can Help

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for standing with my mother and my family in this journey of faith, recovery, and hope.