Tom Gillespie Action Trackchairfund

Thank you to my cousin Arran Forbes for the excellent write up about my dad and his condition and accolades.

If by somehow we go over the donation goal any surplus will go to my mom for medical costs and living expenses. Thank you Seward!

Tommy is the definition of an Alaskan. From infancy, his life has been spent exploring the mountains, rivers, and wilderness of Seward. Friends joke that you could spin him around in a hundred circles, drop him in the wilderness blindfolded, and he'd find his way home in under an hour. From first ascents of unnamed peaks to top finishes at Mount Marathon and Lost Lake, no one has a more profound knowledge of -- or connection to -- the Seward area.

In January 2021, Tommy went to the Seward emergency room with strange neurological symptoms. A CT scan quickly diagnosed him with a brain tumor. A follow-up biopsy in Anchorage identified the cause as an aggressive lymphoma that had likely been amassing for years. Several hours after the biopsy, Tommy sustained a major stroke that left him with limited communication and total paralysis of his right side.

After four months completely bed-bound at Providence in Anchorage, moving between the oncology unit and ICU, Tommy is finally home. Because of the stroke and inoperable brain tumor, he is not expected to be independently mobile again. Friends have worked tirelessly to adapt his house for wheelchair mobility, but he needs to be outside -- in the wilderness he has spent his life exploring and preserving.

The Action Track Chair combines the safety of a hemiplegic wheelchair with the all-terrain utility of a skid steer. A friend in Cooper Landing allowed Tommy to borrow one to see if it would be a good fit, and even the brief outings it allowed immensely improved his mental health and overall wellbeing. For many, a chair like this is a luxury. For Tommy, his freedom, independence, and mobility around Bear Lake and beyond is essential to life itself.

Tommy spent his late nights and weekends working heavy equipment around Seward to keep the roads free of snow and floods, and he also built and maintained critical infrastructure like bridges and roads. His tireless work allowed us to move freely around this extraordinary part of the world. We hope you will contribute to this fund so that he can now use that very infrastructure he dedicated his career to. Rather than be confined to a wheelchair, we hope a wheelchair such as this one will set him free.