The Valcourt Family Overwhelmed by Disabilities
Donation protected
A story of incredible courage
A good family – a bad situation
While we are fortunate that the Covid19 pandemic has barely affected the Valcourt family medically, another kind of disease is wreaking havoc on our lives. My 45 year-old son Robert has an aggressive form of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and in the last two years, it has destroyed his ability to work and to properly care for his wife and three special needs children whom he loves so deeply. Robert’s wife Sylvie is also besieged with multiple illnesses which forced her out of work in 2018. Sylvie is plagued by debilitating migraines, she’s already suffered one mild stroke, she can faint almost anywhere due to Vasovagal Syncope and she has a nasty cyst growing on the pineal gland in her brain which is inoperative. Further details of their individual physical challenges are provided below. It’s been very difficult for them to manage financially. They faced bankruptcy and sold all and anything that was not needed for survival. Provincial disability pensions do not provide sufficient funds to house, feed and clothe 5 people. They have no extended family but me to help support them (I’m single with a modest pension) so we’re here asking our friends and their friends for urgent help. We are launching this fundraiser at this time because their situation has just worsened. Not only do the Valcourts need help from their community to provide for their family of 5, but their landlord of 10 years wants to sell their townhouse (as is his right) and they must vacate it by June 30, 2021. Their entire world is in chaos and the stress on Robert and Sylvie is crippling!
Brave parents humbled by life
We all know that life can be unfair. Some people and families are blessed with good health. Others, like Robert, his wife Sylvie, and their three children are saddled with illnesses that individually are hard enough for families to manage, but when combined as they are here, would bring most of us to our knees. Until recently, Robert and Sylvie soldiered on. They have coped in ways most of us could not imagine. They’ve kept a brave face for their kids, but can no longer hide their pain and distress. This "forced" move, their potential homelessness, their inability to rent a decent home in today’s rental market has made them consider doing the one thing they have never done before - asking strangers like you for help.
We only have a couple of months to raise sufficient funds to help them relocate, but they need additional funds to help them secure decent accommodations that can be altered to accommodate wheelchair access, bars and guard rails as disabilities progress. Until recently they had the best landlord you could want. He only raised their rent by $150.00 in 10 years!! Unfortunately, they can’t carry that saving forward. They are now facing house rentals that have increased by a third to fifty percent since 2011. I wish they only needed funds to move but it does not appear that either Sylvie or Robert will be able to work full time again. If Robert's symptoms improve and he can again do part time web design work, he must give half his earnings to the provincial disability program.
Three special needs kids
We’re prohibited from describing the disabilities or conditions of their three teenagers to protect them from online bullying. That does not diminish the additional loads on both Robert and Sylvie over the last 19 years, to raise their children as healthily as they can and to secure adequate education to help them be as functional and independent as their potential will allow them. None of the three can leave home any time soon, leaving the Valcourt parents to seek housing that can accommodate 5 people. Autism does not come with cookie-cutter treatment and these two devoted parents have had to search far and wide to get adequate support for their kids.
Robert’s and Sylvie’s physical realities
As a result of progressive and aggressive MS, Robert has been left with partial paralysis and most recently he has trouble breathing that leaves him, on most days, feeling like he is suffocating. On the really bad days he can’t even eat because the muscles around his upper torso constrict of their own volition, restricting his ability to swallow and breathe. This is just the latest. His MS continues to wreak further havoc on his body. His limbs may or may not function on any given day. His first episode of MS left him paralyzed on his entire right side. He was able to regain most of the use of his right side in ensuing years, but now each new episode leaves him more and more disabled and he no longer recovers over time. He can no longer run his tech business nor work anywhere else. Unless a cure is found soon, Robert’s prognosis is not good and he will eventually lose control of his muscles and bodily functions.
Because of his aggressive and debilitating disease, he qualifies for a monthly provincial disability pension but that amount just covers rent. It will not cover the new rental costs in 2021. Sylvie is without any disability earnings pending on going tests and procedures to provide clearer diagnoses. We have witnessed Sylvie age 15-20 years in the last 6 years as she is assailed daily by migraines that prohibit her from caring for her kids. She also has severe arthritis in her back (due to scoliosis surgery as a young teen) and in her extremities and has recently been diagnosed with painless migraines that mirror a stroke and cause her face to droop. This type of migraine may be painless but when it’s happening, Sylvie’s tongue is paralyzed and she can barely speak and swallow. When she began to experience multiple fainting episodes at her work place, she and Robert had to accept that she could no longer work. Her job was a very physical one with a printing company, running printers and loading them with 60 lb boxes of paper. Doctors believe that her fainting was a result of Vasovagal Syncope episodes that caused her heart rate and blood pressure to drop drastrically in response to stressors. I’ve witnessed Sylvie in the throes of such an episode, when her panic was tangible because her body was burning up. Many of us have gone running to get the fan and blow it as close to her skin as we can get it. She has fainted and fallen off the toilet so she is always at risk of serious injury.
These are such personal details and I’m sure both Robert and Sylvie would have preferred to keep them private. Independent and hard-working people such as these two are used to being there for others and it is a major step in their evolution to need to ask for help. They need your help!
I am the mother of this courageous and loving man and surrogate mother to this creative, most unselfish and generous woman. Together they are raising the loveliest of people, my grandchildren, of whom I am so proud. The eldest cooked dinner for the whole family on Friday. Such strides in becoming and actualizing their potential fulfills their parents’ greatest hope for them. Teaching them to take care of themselves is Sylvie’s and Robert’s primary goal for their children.
They are my family, and I can’t save them from this life of endless coping with endless challenges. Stress is a key factor in worsening their illnesses, worsening their discomfort, and that’s all they know, every day. Please help them with your donation and by sharing their story with your friends and relatives.
Thank you for your generosity! We thank you with all our hearts and souls! “Life may indeed not be fair, but help from others certainly helps level the playing field!” We in turn wish you continued health and wellbeing in these difficult times.
A good family – a bad situation
While we are fortunate that the Covid19 pandemic has barely affected the Valcourt family medically, another kind of disease is wreaking havoc on our lives. My 45 year-old son Robert has an aggressive form of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and in the last two years, it has destroyed his ability to work and to properly care for his wife and three special needs children whom he loves so deeply. Robert’s wife Sylvie is also besieged with multiple illnesses which forced her out of work in 2018. Sylvie is plagued by debilitating migraines, she’s already suffered one mild stroke, she can faint almost anywhere due to Vasovagal Syncope and she has a nasty cyst growing on the pineal gland in her brain which is inoperative. Further details of their individual physical challenges are provided below. It’s been very difficult for them to manage financially. They faced bankruptcy and sold all and anything that was not needed for survival. Provincial disability pensions do not provide sufficient funds to house, feed and clothe 5 people. They have no extended family but me to help support them (I’m single with a modest pension) so we’re here asking our friends and their friends for urgent help. We are launching this fundraiser at this time because their situation has just worsened. Not only do the Valcourts need help from their community to provide for their family of 5, but their landlord of 10 years wants to sell their townhouse (as is his right) and they must vacate it by June 30, 2021. Their entire world is in chaos and the stress on Robert and Sylvie is crippling!
Brave parents humbled by life
We all know that life can be unfair. Some people and families are blessed with good health. Others, like Robert, his wife Sylvie, and their three children are saddled with illnesses that individually are hard enough for families to manage, but when combined as they are here, would bring most of us to our knees. Until recently, Robert and Sylvie soldiered on. They have coped in ways most of us could not imagine. They’ve kept a brave face for their kids, but can no longer hide their pain and distress. This "forced" move, their potential homelessness, their inability to rent a decent home in today’s rental market has made them consider doing the one thing they have never done before - asking strangers like you for help.
We only have a couple of months to raise sufficient funds to help them relocate, but they need additional funds to help them secure decent accommodations that can be altered to accommodate wheelchair access, bars and guard rails as disabilities progress. Until recently they had the best landlord you could want. He only raised their rent by $150.00 in 10 years!! Unfortunately, they can’t carry that saving forward. They are now facing house rentals that have increased by a third to fifty percent since 2011. I wish they only needed funds to move but it does not appear that either Sylvie or Robert will be able to work full time again. If Robert's symptoms improve and he can again do part time web design work, he must give half his earnings to the provincial disability program.
Three special needs kids
We’re prohibited from describing the disabilities or conditions of their three teenagers to protect them from online bullying. That does not diminish the additional loads on both Robert and Sylvie over the last 19 years, to raise their children as healthily as they can and to secure adequate education to help them be as functional and independent as their potential will allow them. None of the three can leave home any time soon, leaving the Valcourt parents to seek housing that can accommodate 5 people. Autism does not come with cookie-cutter treatment and these two devoted parents have had to search far and wide to get adequate support for their kids.
Robert’s and Sylvie’s physical realities
As a result of progressive and aggressive MS, Robert has been left with partial paralysis and most recently he has trouble breathing that leaves him, on most days, feeling like he is suffocating. On the really bad days he can’t even eat because the muscles around his upper torso constrict of their own volition, restricting his ability to swallow and breathe. This is just the latest. His MS continues to wreak further havoc on his body. His limbs may or may not function on any given day. His first episode of MS left him paralyzed on his entire right side. He was able to regain most of the use of his right side in ensuing years, but now each new episode leaves him more and more disabled and he no longer recovers over time. He can no longer run his tech business nor work anywhere else. Unless a cure is found soon, Robert’s prognosis is not good and he will eventually lose control of his muscles and bodily functions.
Because of his aggressive and debilitating disease, he qualifies for a monthly provincial disability pension but that amount just covers rent. It will not cover the new rental costs in 2021. Sylvie is without any disability earnings pending on going tests and procedures to provide clearer diagnoses. We have witnessed Sylvie age 15-20 years in the last 6 years as she is assailed daily by migraines that prohibit her from caring for her kids. She also has severe arthritis in her back (due to scoliosis surgery as a young teen) and in her extremities and has recently been diagnosed with painless migraines that mirror a stroke and cause her face to droop. This type of migraine may be painless but when it’s happening, Sylvie’s tongue is paralyzed and she can barely speak and swallow. When she began to experience multiple fainting episodes at her work place, she and Robert had to accept that she could no longer work. Her job was a very physical one with a printing company, running printers and loading them with 60 lb boxes of paper. Doctors believe that her fainting was a result of Vasovagal Syncope episodes that caused her heart rate and blood pressure to drop drastrically in response to stressors. I’ve witnessed Sylvie in the throes of such an episode, when her panic was tangible because her body was burning up. Many of us have gone running to get the fan and blow it as close to her skin as we can get it. She has fainted and fallen off the toilet so she is always at risk of serious injury.
These are such personal details and I’m sure both Robert and Sylvie would have preferred to keep them private. Independent and hard-working people such as these two are used to being there for others and it is a major step in their evolution to need to ask for help. They need your help!
I am the mother of this courageous and loving man and surrogate mother to this creative, most unselfish and generous woman. Together they are raising the loveliest of people, my grandchildren, of whom I am so proud. The eldest cooked dinner for the whole family on Friday. Such strides in becoming and actualizing their potential fulfills their parents’ greatest hope for them. Teaching them to take care of themselves is Sylvie’s and Robert’s primary goal for their children.
They are my family, and I can’t save them from this life of endless coping with endless challenges. Stress is a key factor in worsening their illnesses, worsening their discomfort, and that’s all they know, every day. Please help them with your donation and by sharing their story with your friends and relatives.
Thank you for your generosity! We thank you with all our hearts and souls! “Life may indeed not be fair, but help from others certainly helps level the playing field!” We in turn wish you continued health and wellbeing in these difficult times.
Organizer and beneficiary
Diane Marshall
Organizer
Ottawa, ON
Robert Valcourt
Beneficiary