Hi Everyone!

My name is Kathleen, I am an Occupational Therapist who is hoping to have some help from you and everyone you know!

Let me give you a bit of background about me....I was born with an older brother with cerebral palsy, who was non-ambulant and needed help across all aspects of daily living. We were lucky to be in his life for 18 beautiful years, until he sadly passed in 2010. We miss him greatly, bur learnt a great deal in life after having an angel in our life. I now work as an Occupational Therapist at ILS Rehab, providing specials needs participants with wheelchairs and educating people about the importance of supported seating.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. My mum sent us a video of beautiful Joshua. Joshua is a 10 year old boy, who lives in, Bicol, Philippines. Joshua is not formally diagnosed, as they have difficulties accessing a medical team due to their living situation. After watching his story on Youtube, I'm anticipant that Joshua is also diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and an intellectual disability. His heartfelt story and life story is captured by a blogger, Renz, who's goal is to raise awareness and funds to assist the poorer demographic in Philippines, and provide them appropriate resources and financial assistance. Thank you to Renz who is able to share this video around the world to bring awareness.

Joshua currently lays in his bed for most of the day, as he currently has no seating system. His mother works during the day to be able to support his needs. But even this is not enough to fund his milk supplements. As a result, Joshua is developing fixed contractures in his hips, knees and hands. Meaning, if he is to stay in these compromised positions for too long, eventually, those joints will not be able to move anymore. This can affect respiratory function, liver and kidney function and bowel function in the future.

If my family and I have learnt anything after caring for a child with special needs, it's that.....it's really hard. It's a blessing. But man, it's difficult. The medical appointments, the education regarding precautions, the finances required to afford supplements, continence pads, the list goes on. And not to mention, resilience. The mental and physical resilience to continue caring. It's a full time job, and I can't imagine how difficult this would be in a third world country.

I ask you please, watch this video to understand Joshua and his family's circumstance in the Philippines (not in English - skip to 2 minutes).

My goal is to raise $1500 to fund Joshua's new wheelchair. This wheelchair will have the appropriate supports in place to ensure Joshua has a seating device that will assist with his posture and his ability to interact with his environment!

Please help me out if you can, every dollar counts! Every. Dollar. will be donated to Josh and his family. We will use to fund the wheelchair, his supplements and medical needs. 

If you're unable to help, that is absolutely fine, please share this around to bring more awareness about Cerebral Palsy and share Joshua's story!

Let's kick some goals and get Josh a new wheelchair together!!