There is nothing worse than having a small child desperately ill and right now we are all in bits with worry about our little grandson, Lincoln Keen.

I am Patrick and I am sitting here on Vancouver Island giving as much support as I can to my daughter, her hubby and their other three little boys, all under the age of 10, while their 7 year old, Lincoln, lies in the Nanaimo General hospital being treated for Bacterial Meningitis.

Although the little family lives in Nanaimo, dad has been working back in Alberta as a firefighter as employment is tough on the Island. He had just returned to Alberta last week when Lincoln became critically ill. At 4 AM on August 10^th, my daughter, a young stay-at-home mom, “felt” something was wrong and checked on her sleeping boys. She found Lincoln covered in vomit and unconscious. Unable to wake him, she called 911 and a small army of paramedics arrived, could not revive him, and he was taken to hospital where the wonderful ER doctor immediately diagnosed the Meningitis.

Can you imagine the emotional torment that my son-in-law was going through?! Hundreds of kilometres away, his wife alone with 3 little boys and the fourth one in the ER?! We tried to get a flight from Calgary for him but nothing was available, so I picked him up and we drove, non-stop, straight to the hospital. Upon arrival, we learned that Lincoln had been airlifted by helicopter to the larger hospital in Victoria.  Mom went with him,so sky drove to meet at the hospital there and I stayed to handle the home front

Lincoln has been transferred back to Nanaimo. He is making remarkable progress, able to eat small amounts and speak. He is slowly getting his motor skills back but the medical team has told us that he has a long road ahead of him. He is a real little fighter!

As you can imagine, this has been a huge scare for the whole family and it is far from over. The harsh reality of medical costs and loss of income is frightening. Extended family have been sending dinners and etransfers and groceries but they are not a wealthy family and everyone has limits.

Canada has wonderful medical facilities but we have hit some snags in the inter-provincial coverage. It’s a long complex matter but needless to say it looks like there will be thousands of dollars of costs that will not be covered. Our heads are spinning from the entire emergency so the mountains of paperwork will need to be assessed over the next weeks.

Can you help this family? Any contribution will work to alleviate the enormous stress. If you can’t contribute, please forward the link to anyone you think is able to donate. And please post to your Facebook wall.

I am new to this online funding thing, just a grampa who is doing his best to help my family any way I can and keep things together. And we all truly appreciate your support. THANK YOU.