HI, my name is Marianne Fleetwood.

I am writing this in support of my friend Melissa Steer who is currently facing every parents worst nightmare!!

on Sunday, December 4th her 2-year-old son Ryker suffered a stroke. He was airlifted to Victoria general hospital, where he was admitted to ICU.

Ryker has had an MRI and CT scan; he was also put on blood thinners to help clear the blood clot, Ryker has had little blood flow to his brain, and they will not know the outcome for quite some time.

The left side of his body was paralyzed entirely.

The estimated recovery time will be at least a year, as he will need to learn to stand, crawl, walk and hopefully move his hand and arm again.

The road to recovery has already started, and Ryker is determined to be the energetic little boy once again.

A little bit about Melissa.

Melissa is a mother of 6 beautiful children and will need support so she can focus on Ryker's recovery; being away from her kids, animals and home at Christmas time is going to be a very massive stress on all of them; my goal is to raise enough funds to help cover all costs of a mortgage, food, child care and all bills while she is at the bedside of her baby boy, money should be the least of her stresses while she is away. We can all pull together to help our neighbor in need.

I believe we can reach this goal and more; thank you for reading this story and showing support to a family at a time of year that is supposed to be a magical and memorable time for kids; let's help make it just that for them