Help make a Service Dog dream come true!

Hi! My name is Rebecca, and my husband and I are fundraising for our daughter Hannah. Let me tell you a little bit about this kiddo.

Everyone who knows her knows that she’s just the most down to earth, thoughtful, kind, and empathetic soul. She strives to make the world a more fair and happy place. I come home from a busy day at work and despite what she deals with during her day, she just wants to check in with me and make sure I’m alright.

Hannah has been struggling with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalitis and mast cell activation syndrome for a little over 2 years. The CFS is most likely due to a virus like long Covid and the mast cell issue is a genetic disorder. Together they make her extremely tired, dizzy (5 stitches to her head last month after passing out at school), painful flushing, brain fog and so much more. As you can image this is a lot for a 15 year old to deal with. As such, she has developed an anxiety disorder. Hannah describes each day as feeling like ‘when you have the flu and you get out of bed to use the washroom and you just feel gross’.

Unfortunately, despite the suggestions of doctors and naturopaths, the only thing they’ve recommended other than vitamins and adjusting diet is ‘supportive care’ and ‘remaining positive’. Not good enough for this mama.

We have recently met with the beautiful trainers at Canine Valley in Squamish. They specialize in training dogs for service. In this scenario, Hannah would be matched with and trained to handle a dog that can sense her dizzy spells, and provide supportive therapy through her panic attacks. They are a non profit organization and spend countless hours training these dogs and handlers to become a unit. Hannah’s pediatrician says that these dogs can provide ‘a miracle’ in the lives of kids like Hannah.

Hannah’s Dad, Jereme and I are hoping to raise some money to go towards the training of this dog which can be upwards of $25k. Our hope is also to raise more awareness that this type of care is out there for kids that struggle with mental health issues like Hannah does. We hope to document the journey, and any money raised above and beyond our goal would go back into helping someone else who may need a service animal.

Even the smallest donation will help us offset the cost, but if that’s not manageable for you at this time, please consider sharing this post or others that might draw attention to mental health issues and outlets that might continue the conversation in these arenas.

Rebecca, Jereme, and Hannah.