THE BIGELOW FAMILY NEEDS OUR HELP

The Bigelow family needs our help.

If you live in Sooke, you know J'Lynn and her family.

This family of five, Chris and Michele, a.k.a Mom and Dad, Jayden and 11 year old twins, Jase and J’Lynn. Previously, family of seven with Jared and Jacob whom are grown adults now.

This beautiful family needs our help to install a Delta Inclined Platform lift. (https://www.savaria.com/products/delta-straight-ipl) to transport J’Lynn up and down the stairs in her home without injury to her or her family and give her the life she deserves. They are an active family and include J’Lynn in everything they do. Being together with her family and in her music therapy classes is where she is happiest.

Their only daughter J’Lynn is fully dependent on her loving family. She was born with a rare disorder of Glycosylation with a transporter deficiency. This greatly impacts her motor skills, she will never walk, sit up on her own, or feed herself. She is non-verbal, visual impaired, and suffers from epileptic seizures. She has also developed severe Neoromuscular Scoliosis, which she just had major spinal surgery on September 29th of this year to fuse her spine as straight as they possibly could using pins and rods.

With her recent growth, weight and surgery, moving J'Lynn hasn’t been easy. It’s been a real struggle to say the least. They have been using an activity chair prior to surgery to move J’Lynn throughout the house and a stroller in the community and outings.

She has now reached the weight where a wheelchair is a necessity to move her around the home and in the community. Currently, access from the outside of the house to the main floor is via a steep and narrow set of stairs. At the moment she is carried from the front door, to the main floor of the house up the stairs to where her hospital bed in the living room for the next couple of months before being moved to her own bedroom on the same floor after she heals completely from her recent surgery.

Unfortunately the family have started to avoid taking J'Lynn down the stairs, and out for family walks because of the amount of physical energy and risk associated with transporting her. Carrying J'Lynn up and down the stairs is difficult and hazardous, and a great worry. Siblings, pets, toys, a misstep could result in, not only injury to J’Lynn, but also to one of her parents. It’s beginning to make J’Lynn miss out on simple things and now only take her out when they need to. She’s now missing out on her music therapy class and now does them by zoom. She hasn’t even been able to enjoy the backyard anymore.

Therefore they need to modify their home and install a platform lift, which could move her and her wheelchair up and down the stairs safely. This would allow her to be taken outside for walks in the community and even into the backyard. Just being able to attend her favourite music classes again would mean everything.

Please let’s give J’Lynn and her family what they deserve to make J’Lynn’s life easier and happier to do what she loves most.

Please if you can help J’Lynn and her family accomplish getting a platform stair lift installed to give her and her family a bit of relief and a better quality of life for J’Lynn, it would mean the absolute world to this family.

Thank you so much.