Please help Xan get to Korea for TKD tournament.

Hello, I’m Xan! I come before you today to ask for your help, but before I get to that, please allow me tell you a little bit about me and the journey that I have been on. My parents found each other halfway across the world back in 2004 and 10 years later I was welcomed into the world and their loving arms. From the get go there was challenges. For starters, I was born 14 weeks pre-term at 26 weeks, which meant I needed to spend some quality time in the Neo-natal intensive care before I could go to my new home. My pre-term birth, at the onset, caused a grade 4 brain bleed which in turn caused the ventricles in my still growing brain to develop a condition caused hydrocephalus. This prevented the fluid in my brain from naturally draining and thus building up in the ventricles potentially causing brain damage. Fortunately, I was under the care of some of the best neonatal and neurosurgical doctors in the southeast that quickly realized my condition and got me into surgery as fast as possible to get a shunt installed in my head to drain the fluid and relieve the pressure on my delicate brain.

Over the course of 2 years, my ventricles stabilized on their own and I no longer needed the shunt in my head. However, the damage had been done. It started to become apparent as I learned to start walking that I was going to have developmental disabilities. After visiting many specialists, I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, mainly on the left side of my body and other slight cognitive disabilities. As I got older, the extent of the cerebral palsy started to become more apparent, especially in the many weekly sessions I had with occupational and physical therapists. Despite these setbacks, I was still the typical rambunctious boy. I took interests in many physical activities and even though I had great difficulty participating, my condition never held me back. Once such physical sport that I was taking great interest in was martial arts. I remember watching The Karate Kid one Saturday afternoon with my dad and was inspired that a lone boy with no friends and was being bullied at school took to learning martial arts to defend himself and to stand up to those that would bully or otherwise take advantage of the weak and less fortunate. I would watch this movie over and over and each time the fighting scenes would come on, I would begin to mimic the moves of my hero Larusso and Mr. Miyagi.

During one of my physical therapy sessions, it was discovered that our insurance wasn’t going to cover many more sessions. The instructor once hearing this, coupled with my love for marital arts, suggested that my parents enroll me into Taekwondo and that it could have great benefits to help with my cerebral palsy including loosening up the muscle tones on my left side that cause me to walk with a gimp and that keeps me from ambulating my left arm and hand. My dad took me to the local Taekwondo school and we sat in on a class so I could observe. I was so excited seeing the moves that I had only seen in the movies being practiced before me in real life. The instructor of the school offered us a trial week to see if we would like it and my parents enrolled me. To say that me and Taekwondo got along like a house on fire is a huge understatement. I finally felt that I had a place, a sense of being and something that I was able to do. In the 3 years that I have been taking Taekwondo, I have built up my confidence in the competitions I have participated in. I have been to several competitions and won many awards. I am on my last color belt and as I train for my black belt test, there is one more competition to prove myself – The World Taekwondo Championship in Incheon, Korea. Getting there is not going to be easy and this is where I need your help! Travel expenses are the biggest hurdle and traveling abroad makes it all the more challenging. To help raise money, My mom has re started up her virtual food truck, The Monkey Bite. She started The Monkey Bite back in the height of Covid in 2020 when her job was forced to shut down. She did remarkably well and is bringing it back to help fund my quest to the World Taekwondo Championship in Korea. Please visit The Monkey Bite page on Facebook to learn more about ordering some of my mom’s delicious eats and to help me get to Korea. *Wink*

If you’re just interested in donating, then we have a GoFundMe setup to accept your generous donations. We have an initial goal $12,000 to cover the competition fees, lodging, and air travel. We hope to raise at least $15,000 to provide enough to cover any unforseen incidentals. Any amount you can donate is greatly appreciated. Once again, thank you for your time and your consideration of helping me achieve one of my dreams.