Donate to Empower Cheyenne's Life with a Service Dog

Hi everybody,

My name is Cheyenne Lawrence. Some of you may be familiar with my story. I am 24 years old and live in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. When I was 17, I started having epileptic seizures. I did not grow up without challenges, but the challenges I started to experience with my health changed the direction of my life drastically. Due to seizures, I have had over 15 concussions, I’ve knocked out my teeth, and I’ve had severe mental health struggles that have gotten significantly worse and led me to attempt to take my own life. I am a survivor of two comas, and I have chosen to keep surviving. I am at a standstill recently in my recovery, and I need your help. I don’t want to keep surviving anymore; I want to live again. A few years ago, I had a service dog prospect that did not end the way I wish it had. It drained me emotionally and of all my savings; my finances and the donations I received were wasted with it. I never received a trained dog. It broke me for a long time. For six years, I have decided to keep waiting for the right moment in my life to try again, to maybe try for a service dog a second time. I am finally in the perfect position to provide a dog with the love, support, training, care, and community it would need. I am here today with the intention of asking for your help with this next chapter. Due to my epilepsy and PTSD, I am left unable to function the way someone my age normally would. I live in constant fear, unable to be independent, scared for my safety, and have become very agoraphobic unless it involves people or places I deem as “safe,” and as time goes on, my safe circle is becoming smaller. I am actively working hard to battle this, but I cannot do it alone. I am receiving care and I am recovering, but it is not without constant setbacks and struggles. My medical team and I have reached a consensus that this may be a good time to try a service dog again. I am saddened to have to come before my community once again asking for help, but I promise it is with good reason. So often, I see what people can do to help others, and even though I may feel as though I may not deserve that, I want to try. I want to take my pride, my insecurity, and all of the other things holding me back and advocate for what I need. I want to feel safe again. Service dogs do come with great cost and responsibility. However, those efforts come with great value through adding opportunities to someone’s life.

I would love the chance to have more opportunities in my life. I am degree-seeking but unable to attend class without panic attacks, afraid that I will have a seizure in class again and get hurt or traumatize other students. I love the outdoors, but I am afraid to adventure alone or explore because of the fear of something happening to me with no access to help. I am afraid to go out in public, and I am afraid to be left alone. I am able to work but live in constant fear. These are just a few ways my condition has proved to cause challenges in my life. I know a service dog would do an unimaginable amount of good for me. The cost for my service dog to be trained for just the first year will be around $3,400, and that is without food, treats, toys, vet bills, vaccines, etc. My husband and I are willing to cut down on everything we have to make this happen and work hard for this to come to fruition, but I wanted to ask if there is anything you can donate to consider helping me. We live far from “financial freedom” and I only intend to use this service dog as a tool to improve my life, my self-worth, my confidence, and my independence. It would mean the entire world to me to have some of that financial burden with its training, vaccinations, and medical expenses in the first year lightened for me and my husband. Due to my health, we have medical debt and bills on top of this while having to pay for my medications to keep me safe. Unfortunately, my condition that has no cure has been the biggest investment of my life. I need the help. Anything means everything to me.

If you are wondering how I intend to train my service dog, it will be through Animal Connection Training in Saranac Lake, NY. Kinna and Gene are some of the kindest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. In our conversations, they have made me feel safe, valued, and listened to. They intend to keep their costs of training as affordable and accessible to people as possible because they know the amazing impact animals can have on someone’s life. They are a positive reinforcement training program and have a training center less than a mile from my home. In time, my dog would be trained with retrieval of an emergency bag with a first aid kit and emergency medication, seizure alert, the ability to find help and bring someone to me in a time of an emergency, deep pressures and anxiety relief tactics and be my companion everywhere I go.

If you cannot help, please know that I understand. If you know anyone who may be able to, please reach out.

Lastly, I just want to say thank you. I want to say thank you to the people, communities, friends, medical professionals, and people who have supported me and continue to support me through all of these years. I would be completely lost without every person who has offered me any help. You are the people who have changed my heart and my life for good.

With love, light, gratitude, and respect,

Cheyenne