Stem Cells For Eli!
Donation protected
Hi! My name is Kimberly and I’ve known the Tasiopoulos family for 3 years now. Like most people who are lucky enough to meet Eli, I fell in love with his contagious smile and hearty chuckle the moment I met him. I’m here to tell you a little bit about Eli, his big news, and how you can help him reach his fullest potential!
Meet Eli - The boy best known for his huge smile and contagious laugh who brightens every room he enters! Eli is almost four years old, and like most kids his age he loves funny noises, playing sports and swimming. However, unlike most kids, Eli lives with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy as a result of a brain injury sustained during his delivery. Although Eli is currently developmentally delayed, nonverbal and relies on a feeding tube for nutrition, this boy loves to play with his friends and family in his hometown of Dartmouth, NS. His best friend and favourite person in the whole world is his younger sister, Maria, but he thinks his parents are pretty okay too.
Eli has an incredibly loving and supportive group of family and friends, and is closely followed by a wonderful team of healthcare providers both within the community and through the IWK Health Centre which include:
Neurologists
Physiotherapists
Occupational Therapists
Speech Language Pathologists
Ophthalmologists
Conductive Therapists
Rehabilitation Specialists
Early Interventionists
Atlantic Provinces Special Education (APSEA)
Nutritionists
Eli is continuing to grow every day and has already accomplished such wonderful skills, most recently he has learned to crawl and has started to develop more fine motor skills such as being able to pick up some of his favourite toys and objects with his hands. He is able to follow more simple commands, and his vision has improved tremendously thanks to a combination of surgery and hard work. Eli faces obstacles on a daily basis but tackles each and every one with his high energy, amazing smile and determination.
Our goal is to give him every opportunity we can to reach his fullest potential, allowing him to have the best quality of life possible.
Currently all of the therapies Eli receives are to help him cope with his increased muscle tone and overcome his challenges with balance and coordination. Meredith and George (Eli’s Mommy and Daddy) have been following various types of research surrounding Cerebral Palsy, and there is one thing that has been discussed as an up and coming treatment option for Eli - this is called Stem Cell Therapy.
Stem Cell Therapy is not currently being offered in Canada, but is the first treatment they have found that actually focuses on rebuilding the pathways that were damaged in his brain during delivery.
Meredith and George found a reputable study being conducted through Duke University in North Carolina, that is using stem cell treatments in children like Eli that are living with cerebral palsy https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03473301 After months of sending in medical documents, communicating back and forth to research members, and waiting not-so-patiently, Meredith and George found out - Eli is IN!
Eli’s neurology team at the IWK are incredibly supportive of stem cell therapy, and feel that it will become a standardized treatment option in the future for children with cerebral palsy. Eli is currently at a prime developmental age where is brain is growing and developing rapidly, making this timing the most optimal and ideal for him to follow through with this treatment.
This study is accepting only 100 children worldwide, with Eli being one of them - making this an incredibly exciting and such a wonderfully huge opportunity. We currently will not know which “arm” of the study Eli will be put into until Meredith, George and Maria arrive on their first day in North Carolina at Duke University in a few weeks, but Meredith and George do know of other information - that this study involves travelling from Halifax to North Carolina at least 3-4 times over the next year.
Duke University provides financial support of 1000 dollars towards this amazing family's travel expenses, which is greatly appreciated. This however will not be sufficient to cover the costs of airfare, hotels, meals, rental cars, gas, and other unexpected expenses. Meredith and George have also been notified that the stem cells are given the best opportunity to recover Eli’s damaged cells by doing intensive therapy when they return to Halifax for several weeks - another added expense for their family.
For those who already know Eli, Maria, Meredith and George - all would say that this family is beyond amazing. We would love to come together as a community to assist their family in easing the financial strain so that they can focus on what’s most important- Eli being given the opportunity to continue thriving. Any donations are welcome and so genuinely appreciated by the family. Thank you for reading Eli’s story. Please continue to share and send!
Meet Eli - The boy best known for his huge smile and contagious laugh who brightens every room he enters! Eli is almost four years old, and like most kids his age he loves funny noises, playing sports and swimming. However, unlike most kids, Eli lives with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy as a result of a brain injury sustained during his delivery. Although Eli is currently developmentally delayed, nonverbal and relies on a feeding tube for nutrition, this boy loves to play with his friends and family in his hometown of Dartmouth, NS. His best friend and favourite person in the whole world is his younger sister, Maria, but he thinks his parents are pretty okay too.
Eli has an incredibly loving and supportive group of family and friends, and is closely followed by a wonderful team of healthcare providers both within the community and through the IWK Health Centre which include:
Neurologists
Physiotherapists
Occupational Therapists
Speech Language Pathologists
Ophthalmologists
Conductive Therapists
Rehabilitation Specialists
Early Interventionists
Atlantic Provinces Special Education (APSEA)
Nutritionists
Eli is continuing to grow every day and has already accomplished such wonderful skills, most recently he has learned to crawl and has started to develop more fine motor skills such as being able to pick up some of his favourite toys and objects with his hands. He is able to follow more simple commands, and his vision has improved tremendously thanks to a combination of surgery and hard work. Eli faces obstacles on a daily basis but tackles each and every one with his high energy, amazing smile and determination.
Our goal is to give him every opportunity we can to reach his fullest potential, allowing him to have the best quality of life possible.
Currently all of the therapies Eli receives are to help him cope with his increased muscle tone and overcome his challenges with balance and coordination. Meredith and George (Eli’s Mommy and Daddy) have been following various types of research surrounding Cerebral Palsy, and there is one thing that has been discussed as an up and coming treatment option for Eli - this is called Stem Cell Therapy.
Stem Cell Therapy is not currently being offered in Canada, but is the first treatment they have found that actually focuses on rebuilding the pathways that were damaged in his brain during delivery.
Meredith and George found a reputable study being conducted through Duke University in North Carolina, that is using stem cell treatments in children like Eli that are living with cerebral palsy https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03473301 After months of sending in medical documents, communicating back and forth to research members, and waiting not-so-patiently, Meredith and George found out - Eli is IN!
Eli’s neurology team at the IWK are incredibly supportive of stem cell therapy, and feel that it will become a standardized treatment option in the future for children with cerebral palsy. Eli is currently at a prime developmental age where is brain is growing and developing rapidly, making this timing the most optimal and ideal for him to follow through with this treatment.
This study is accepting only 100 children worldwide, with Eli being one of them - making this an incredibly exciting and such a wonderfully huge opportunity. We currently will not know which “arm” of the study Eli will be put into until Meredith, George and Maria arrive on their first day in North Carolina at Duke University in a few weeks, but Meredith and George do know of other information - that this study involves travelling from Halifax to North Carolina at least 3-4 times over the next year.
Duke University provides financial support of 1000 dollars towards this amazing family's travel expenses, which is greatly appreciated. This however will not be sufficient to cover the costs of airfare, hotels, meals, rental cars, gas, and other unexpected expenses. Meredith and George have also been notified that the stem cells are given the best opportunity to recover Eli’s damaged cells by doing intensive therapy when they return to Halifax for several weeks - another added expense for their family.
For those who already know Eli, Maria, Meredith and George - all would say that this family is beyond amazing. We would love to come together as a community to assist their family in easing the financial strain so that they can focus on what’s most important- Eli being given the opportunity to continue thriving. Any donations are welcome and so genuinely appreciated by the family. Thank you for reading Eli’s story. Please continue to share and send!
Organizer and beneficiary
Kimberly Martell
Organizer
Dartmouth, NS
Meredith Tasiopoulos
Beneficiary