After years of fighting, I need my community's help for the care, answers, and rehabilitation I deserve.

I collapsed in 2022, I’m 31 years old, I’ve been making real tangible progress in the last 6 to 12 months and I’m ready to get back on my feet and walk alongside you all again.

Let me first share where the contributions will be invested and then secondly I’ll share about my story in case you’re curious about who you’re helping.

What I Am Asking For:

I'm raising funds for three specific things:

1. Relief for my parents — $5,000

My mom and dad have given four years of their lives to keeping me alive and cared for.

Every single day. Not a day missed.

From lifting me out of bed, to helping me use the bathroom, to getting me in and out of the car, to every part of my day until I end up back in bed, they have devoted themselves to my recovery.

Through all the pain and suffering and all the unknowns, when The healthcare system failed us and didn’t offer any guidance or hands on help, when we went to the hospitals and they sent us home with no answers and no relief, my parents continued to show up and have never given up on me.

My dad is 84 and my mom is 64.

They need real rest.

Not an afternoon, but weeks where they can actually decompress, sleep, and remember who they are outside of caregiving.

Proper care coverage while they rest runs approximately $30/hour for two caregivers across an eight-hour day.

This covers two to three weeks of that. It is the most urgent and immediate need.

2. Comprehensive diagnostics — $15,000–$25,000

The Ontario system assesses me one specialist at a time, with three to six months between each appointment.

I need one facility like Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, or equivalent that can look at me as a whole person, run every relevant test, have specialists talk to each other, and give me a real picture of what is actually happening in my body.

I have never had that. I need it before I can commit to the right rehabilitation program.

In fact, I was diagnosed with FND 2 years ago and just over a week ago was told by the top FND specialist that they do not believe that I have FND.

I’m so frustrated and at the end of my capacity dealing with the Ontario healthcare system.

3. Proper rehabilitation — $25,000+

Once I have a real diagnosis, I need an intensive, multidisciplinary rehabilitation program.

I have one quote already for a five-week neurorehabilitation program at $22,000 USD, not including travel and accommodation.

The right program may look different once we have better answers. Whatever it is, I will share every update with everyone who donates.

Total goal: $50,000

Who Is Jonathan

Before I collapsed, I showed up for people.

For years I travelled across Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Montreal giving over 100 talks at high schools and universities about youth mental health with Jack.org.

In 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, I founded Circle Up, a men's community that has run 21 ten-week programs encouraging men to show up and care for one another.

As well as to stop manning up and instead to circle up. And then went on to write a book about it.

I led Toastmasters clubs, became a president, started new ones. I was building my life around community, connection and service. Just like my parents taught me.

In March 2022, I started having issues breathing, and then soon after with standing. Within a couple months my condition worsened and I collapsed completely.

What Happened

After a serious cliff jumping accident in Guatemala, mould exposure, a tick bite, and a cascade of physical breakdowns, I stopped being able to live independently. I was unable to walk, sit unassisted, or breathe without pain.

Today I spend roughly 20 hours a day lying down. I need hands-on help for every part of my day.

When I sit up, my body collapses forward and my eyes fix toward the ground. I need someone's hands on my face or chest just to hold my head up long enough to look at the horizon.

My parents (dad now 84, mom now 64) have been my primary caregivers for over four years. They have done this with extraordinary love and at enormous personal cost.

What the System Did

I want to be honest about what happened when I asked for help.

I was denied admission to Toronto Rehab. Their reason: I wasn't well enough

I was denied the Movement Disorder Clinic in Toronto.

Denied out-of-province coverage.

Denied out-of-country coverage.

Denied the Vancouver Movement Disorder Clinic.

I waited a full year to access a pain clinic, completed six months of psychotherapy, and was told there was nothing more they could do.

Then, after years of being told I had Functional Neurological Disorder and to stop searching for other answers, because looking for answers was supposedly making me worse , I was assessed last week by Dr. Linstone, the leading FND specialist in Ontario.

After two and a half hours she told me she doesn't believe I have FND at all.

Years. The wrong diagnosis. And a system that told me to stop asking questions.

I am not bitter about this. But I am clear: the Ontario healthcare system cannot give me what I need. I have to find it myself. And I need my community's help to do that.

What's Actually Working

I need you to know this, because it's the reason I'm asking for help instead of giving up.

I am getting better.

The pool has changed things. Six months ago, leg extensions were impossible. Now they are getting a little better each week.

My pain has decreased. My sitting tolerance has grown from zero to four hours a day. When someone holds my chest or face while I sit, my nervous system settles and my eyes come up to the horizon.

I started doing sit-ups in the car to mimic getting out of bed and I'm getting stronger.

More reps, deeper incline, less soreness and recovery time. A couple months ago I could do 10 repetitions two times a week and now I am doing 44 repetitions three days in a row. That’s real progress for me!

I also started wheeling myself independently in my wheelchair for the first time in four years. I tried it at the beginning of the , At first only 10 feet about two times per week.

Now I can take myself all the way from the curb at the leisure centre, through the change rooms, to the side of the pool four days a week.

My body remembers how to be upright. It just needs the right support to get there.

Why I'm Asking You

I spent years showing up in rooms where people were struggling and offering what I had.

I didn't do it for any other reason than that's how my parents raised me and it was the right thing to do.

I want to get back to that.

I also know that community is not just something you build for others. Sometimes you have to let it hold you.

This is me letting it hold me.

If you can give $20, give $20.

If you can give $100, that's amazing. $500 , thank you so much. $1,000 or more, I’m deeply grateful.

Whatever you personally can give, it genuinely makes a difference.

If you can't give anything, sharing this with one person who might is worth just as much.

I am going to stand up again. I am going to walk hand-in-hand alongside you all. I am going to take a hot shower on my own and hug my parents thanking them for all they did for me.

I just need a little help getting there.

— Jonathan