Wheelchair accessible vehicle for Sam ❤️
Donación protegida
Samantha Leacy was always the beautiful, confident, fun and charismatic girl at school, incredibly kind with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. If you were with Sam, you were always having fun or having a laugh, and her family were (and still are) extremely loyal, generous and loving people.
In 1991 we all finished school and we were so excited for the lives we had ahead of us. Sam had her red VW beetle and the world was at her feet. No one could have predicted the devastating chain of events that our beautiful confident friend and her family had ahead of them.
On Christmas Eve, the same year we finished school, Sam suffered a small stroke which left half her body without feeling, however being as healthy and happy as Sam was, even the medical professionals weren’t alarmed. Hence it was almost a week later that she was sent for a CT scan, and a contrast dye was used which detected a large cluster of blood vessels that weren’t connected to anything in Sam’s brain. To cut a long story short, probably as a result of the contrast dye being injected (no one can say definitively), the cluster of blood vessels exploded, and Sam suffered a massive CVA that same night of 31st December 1991 while she was under the care of a physician in hospital. She was rushed to North Shore hospital, had surgery and remained in intensive care and hospital for months. From that moment on, Sam would never be able to do anything for herself again. After suffering septicaemia when she had a feeding tube inserted into her stomach, and more surgery, many in the medical profession lost hope for any form of rehabilitation. Nevertheless her family did what they could to send her to a rehab centre where she remained for a few months until she went home late in 1992. Her parents were told they would last a day or 2 looking after her, however they never gave up, and 28 years later Sam still lives with them.
Matthew Salmon and I have set up this Go Fund Me page for our beautiful friend Samantha Leacy, with whom we went to high school. Sam is a very close friend to both Matt and I, and the strongest person we know. We are currently both working with Sam to improve her communication through the use of Eye Gazing Technology, which is incredibly promising and exciting as we are able to communicate with her on a level, we have not been able to do for almost 30 years. Through this communication with Sam and the regular interactions with Sam’s friend and carer Lisa Stewart, it became very apparent to us that to get a Wheelchair accessible vehicle to be able to take Sam to a park, or the board walk on a beach, or visit friends and to simply reintroduce spontaneity into Sam’s life again after 28 years would be completely life changing for her.
The go fund me support team have asked that I include in this page that I (Lisa Whealy AKA Lisa Tesoriero) will be responsible for withdrawing the funds from the go fund me page, and overseeing the purchase of the vehicle so that all the donors are aware of where their donations are at all times. I am setting up a new account in my name that I will transfer all the funds received from the go fund me page into, so every cent will go to the vehicle for Sam and if we are lucky enough to raise any extra, these funds will all go to vehicle running costs and ongoing medical expenses for Sam.
We are more than half way to our goal of $45,000 (however if we raise more we can purchase a newer vehicle for Sam), so please donate to, and share our Go Fund me page - as there is no one more deserving of a break than Sam and her family!!
xx
Equipo de recaudación de fondos: Sam (2)
Lisa Tesoriero
Organizador
Manly NSW
Matthew Salmon
Team member
