Young Veteran Jennifer Cousintine, needs our help

Jennifer has served as a Firefighter, Paramedic and in The Canadian Armed Forces.

Jennifer will fly to Germany on November 23rd for Disc Replacement surgery. GoFundme is not something we considered doing until we received requests from multiple people wanting to help.

Jennifer's fire fighting career began when she was 18. She started as a volunteer firefighter at the Oxtongue Lake Fire Department under Fire Chief Ted Keown and Ken Williams.

She continued on to graduate the Firefighting Course at Cambrian College, followed by graduating Paramedics with Honours out of Timmins. Shortly after, Jennifer enrolled in the Canadian Armed Forces where she served as a Firefighter in the Air Force.

While based in Greenwood Nova Scotia, Jennifer was injured on the job where she suffered a broken back. During surgery she received a fusion/rods and screws in her back. The damage below the fusion was not addressed at that time. Jennifer was medically discharged from the Military in December 2021. She struggles with mobility and debilitating pain on a daily basis. She is unable to sit and struggles with the simple task of even making a meal. Her condition has progressed significantly and she is in desperate need of medical intervention. The only option for her in Canada is another fusion which would leave her with no range of motion and the probability of more fusions down the road.

One of her medical teams HIGHLY recommended disc replacement surgery in Germany, not available in Canada. This would retain range of motion, relieve stress on the discs above the fusion, and hopefully avoid future surgical intervention. If all goes well, the replacement surgery should also provide significant pain relief.

Jennifer reached out to Veterans Affairs for financial support with this procedure. Not only has she now missed out on two booked surgery dates in Germany trying to get approval from Veterans Affairs, she has also just spent another week in hospital after taking a tumble from her legs not functioning properly. Her scans show significantly more damage just since June. There's no more waiting, she needs help. The physical and emotional stress have taken a real toll.

Her family has come up with the $54,000 for the surgery but it goes further. Jennifer is unable to sit, her and her support person will have to fly Business class so she can lay flat. Each return ticket is $10,230 not to mention after care.

Please help us support this young Veteran.