Friends, family and wider community,

I am sending out this plea for funds for my brother John to get a new wheelchair!

When I think of the word perseverance, my brother John comes to mind. As a child he was diagnosed with Blounts disease. Blount's disease causes a bow or bend in the leg below the knee. While he was fortunate enough to have surgery at Shriners Hospital as a child, his condition has been severe and the surgery did not correct it. He has lived his life with one leg two inches shorter than the other due to the bend in his shin bone. Fast forward to now, at age 49 my brother struggles to walk and is in need of a wheelchair. Next week he will undergo a toe amputation due to bone damage in his foot because of the pressure placed on his foot caused by his uneven stature. At the beginning of 2022, a battle with Covid further damaged his already compromised health resulting in kidney failure and now he must undergo dialysis 4 times a week indefinitely. The manual wheelchair he currently uses is falling apart. The downfall to using a manual chair is that he needs someone to push it and struggles to navigate on his own, especially if an entrance to an appointment is on a grade or hill (which is often the case here in San Francisco). An automatic wheelchair would give him the freedom he needs as well as allow him to go places unaccompanied and in need of hands on assistance. 

My brother is doing everything he can to live a full life despite his health issues but his ability to keep moving forward requires all of us to pitch in however we can. The best and most direct help you can give is through this GoFundme effort. Every dollar counts.

Please share this GoFundMe far and wide!