Help Kyla Recover From a Brain Injury

We’re raising necessary funds to help Kyla recover from a Traumatic Brain Injury.

 

Our amazing friend Kyla Jamieson is in need of help. In the spring of 2017, Kyla suffered a life-altering brain injury after an accident at home. Due to inadequate care after the injury, she developed Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS), which left her unable to work or do basic daily activities like cooking or meeting up with friends. Kyla is a talented poet and writer as well as a disability activist, model, and athlete. Intense PCS symptoms make engaging in once life-giving activities like writing and doing sports extremely painful.

The goal of this fundraiser is to get Kyla the healing resources she needs so she can enjoy the simple things in life without experiencing debilitating symptoms. We would love to bring everyday joy and ease back into this incredible woman's life so she can feel something like “normal” again and continue on her path to inspire others with her words and generosity.

 

 

Barriers to Accessing Effective Treatment

 

The Canadian healthcare system does not provide coverage for treatment of her complex array of symptoms. Her personal health insurance has only covered about 5-10% of her care over the past five years.

 

Medical practitioners covered through BC’s healthcare plan have continuously failed to properly diagnose and treat Kyla’s conditions, which has painfully prolonged her recovery process. Pushing through symptoms to work to make ends meet and new injuries (including a workplace burn injury and a car accident) have further delayed her recovery.

 

Kyla is her own full-time caretaker. She doesn’t have financial support from her family and she’s unable to rely on them for day-to-day care. Over the course of her illness, she’s been solely responsible for researching her condition on top of figuring out how to pay her regular bills and stay afloat with significantly reduced function. Because of her limited personal support systems, Kyla really needs community care. And that’s where we come in!

 

 

How Your Donation Supports Kyla’s Care

 

A year of comprehensive and consistent treatment costs between $25,000-$35,000. This will give Kyla the best chance for getting back to exercising, reading and writing, and spending time with friends without her symptoms flaring up. It will also allow her to make progress towards returning to regular work, so that she can support herself and participate more actively in the creative communities that are so important to her.

 

Your contribution will make a huge difference in the trajectory of Kyla’s healing. A major portion of the funds raised will go towards an intensive treatment program in the US, where she will be treated by a leading concussion specialist. Access to this treatment will be truly life-changing for Kyla.

 

 

Thank You for Considering Donating to Support Kyla

 

Every contribution helps and shows Kyla we are invested in her recovery. Our support will enable her to dedicate as much energy as possible to her rehabilitation, which is crucial for healing. Funds raised beyond the goal amount will go towards continued support as Kyla works towards the fullest recovery possible.

 

Thank you for considering offering Kyla financial support to get access to the resources she needs to heal and make a meaningful recovery from her brain injury.

 

 

About Kyla

 

Kyla is poet and poetry mentor, member of the disability community, advocate for brain injury survivors and folks with invisible disabilities, and the author of two volumes of poetry, Body Count and Kind of Animal. She is also the founder of Home Team Models, a collective for independent models, and Rest Days Reading Series, an accessible literary event series spotlighting disabled writers. Through her experience with PCS, Kyla has used her voice to advocate for the disabled community through personal research, activism, and thought leadership on social media as well as in her poetry. She’s written extensively about her PCS experience on her Instagram . You can read more of her writing on her Substack or via her website .