Meet our Gracelynn!! Gracelynn has never known life without seizures as her journey with Epilepsy began when she was just 6 months old. When Gracie was just 9 months old, the genetic testing came back revealing she had a rare genetic mutation that leads to Dravet Syndrome. Dravet Syndrome is a rare and catastrophic form of Epilepsy that currently has no known cure and is notoriously difficult to treat and control. Gracelynn is the only child in our community of Gander, Newfoundland to have Dravet Syndrome and one of only approximately 100 people in Canada to be living with the diagnosis. At the time of her diagnosis, she was only the 6th person to be living in Newfoundland with this terrifying condition. Gracelynn is now almost 4 years old and she has suffered countless seizures, many of which go on for several minutes, and occasionally have lasted hours. She has been air lifted to the children’s hospital several hours away from her home on multiple occasions, and has required resuscitation and life support at times. Despite the seizures and all of the medication side effects, Gracelynn doesn’t let any of it keep her down. She continues to defy the odds, and lives a very busy life. She spends hours playing with her dolls, watching videos on her tablet, and she has recently started gymnastics! Life however, for our family, is anything but typical. Because Gracelynn’s seizures often happen overnight or when she is sleeping, her risk of SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death of Epilepsy Patients) is significantly increased. The older she gets, the greater the chance that SUDEP will take her from us. The average age of sudden death for a child diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome is approximately 8yrs. The anxiety that comes with these seizures is devastating. Never knowing when one might happen, always being on high alert, waking up to check on her several times each night and desperately hoping she awakes in the morning is exhausting. Somebody is almost always by her side, on high alert, always ready to jump into action. Frighteningly enough, Gracelynn’s oxygen levels also drop drastically during and after some of her seizures, so having a seizure in her sleep that goes unnoticed could be life threatening for her. We have added anti-suffocation pillows to her bed as a precaution and we keep a video monitor on her at all times when she is sleeping, but they only alleviate a fraction of our worry. A seizure response dog would be an invaluable support not only to Gracelynn but to our entire family. A dog that could be by her side to alert us to seizures would offer so much comfort at night time when she is sleeping. A seizure response dog would be able to accompany her on hospital trips and through difficult appointments and procedures and would be by her side as she grows up. A service dog could help calm her when she is anxious or scared, could provide comfort and protection during and after a seizure and could possibly learn to alert to oncoming seizures allowing us to react and act accordingly. New Hope for Assistance is an organization dedicated to providing service dogs to the people who need them most and we are excited about the possibility of adding a seizure response dog to our family and to Gracie’s life. These dogs are highly trained and perform an invaluable job, but not surprisingly, that must come at a cost. To raise and train one of these amazing dogs it can cost an average of $25,000 - $50,000. New Hope for Assistance will train and provide a dog to help Gracie for $18,500 USD. We must raise this money to move forward in our journey and we are asking for your help. As a family with young children, this cost feels unattainable on our own and we are asking for help in reaching our goal. We will never stop fighting for Gracelynn, we will always do everything we can to make her life as fulfilled and extraordinary as possible. Please consider helping us raise the funds required to move forward in this journey, so that we can continue forward and one day be matched with a seizure response dog for Gracelynn.