Training My Service Dog

This is Rory a 10 week old golden retriever puppy who was bred with the exceptional bloodlines to be a service dog and gifted to me from Elkridge Goldens. Rory will be starting training to be a service dog in the next few days. He will improve my quality of a normal life greatly. He can assist me in my daily life as well as hopefully allow me to walk again. I would give anything to be out of my wheelchair for my senior year.

For those who do know what is wrong with me you can skip to the next paragraph. In February of last year I was diagnosed with CNS Lyme disease causing me to faint every day. As well as getting cluster headaches every hour that now require me to be on oxygen 4-6 times a day for 20 minutes. Due to fainting, I acquired many head injuries requiring me to wear a helmet and life alert in my daily life as well as a heart monitor. They said one more hit to the head would be fatal. I spent 2 months out of school in the hospital last year and I spent last year and this year in and out of the hospital constantly. One of my most recent concussions, I was having issues with my speech. Being a junior in high school with a speech impediment, wheelchair, oxygen mask, heart monitor, life alert and helmet does a number on your mental state. I just really want my senior year to be rid of all of this madness. I'm hoping to be graduating high school with my associates degree and I would love to be solely focused on that rather than my medical situation.

Unfortunately, service dog training is very expensive even though I found someone who can do it for $80 a week but still exploring other avenues to make this happen. It adds up quickly when he needs at least a year of training. I am in contact with a few newspapers about writing an article as well as brainstorming many fundraising ideas. It's still not enough to raise $10,000. I'm asking for help from anyone who is willing to help. I know times are tough around the holidays but if anyone could donate money, items for baskets, or anything they could think of it would be greatly appreciated. Please consider helping, it's crucial that I start training ASAP.