Fundraising a Wheelchair Accessible Van for Henry

Team fundraiser

Carol Cho and Heather Crawley are organizing this fundraiser on behalf of David Crawley.

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My name is Carol Cho, I am a healthcare provider and friend to the Crawley family; David, Heather, Rosemary (age 9) and Henry (age 10). As a mother of two, I feel a natural inclination to help this family with their needs. We are looking for donations to help this family pay off the remaining $60,000 balance of the wheelchair-accessible van for their son Henry. Due to unforeseen costs in their lives, the van has become unaffordable and they are now at risk of losing it if they don't find the funding for it. Once complete, the funds from this gofundme will be directed to Heather and David's bank account directly from this page. The entire sum will be used as one payment to completely pay off the van, leaving this family with what they need to continue to live their lives as normally as possible and most importantly enrich the life of young Henry.

Henry was diagnosed with a very rare degenerative brain disease known as pelizaeus-merzbacher like disease, which is one of the many classifications of leukodystrophy. In short, Henry’s illness is the slow breakdown of the myelin sheath of his brain and nervous system. With this, Henry is slowly losing the motor function of his body. In 10 years, David and Heather had to watch their little boy go from walking unassisted to using a walker, to where he is today completely immobile. For more on this, please read this article David had written in 2018: https://ulf.org/2020/02/henry-crawley-pmld/

Heather and David have to work through all of Henry’s needs every single day. While both working full-time jobs (David is currently working two) to pay their bills. They have to lift their 10-year-old child in and out of bed, on and off the toilet, to and from every chair and have to carefully watch over and feed Henry as he can no longer do it himself, and is prone to choking. They are a living example of unconditional love.

Heather managed to get government funding for a motorized wheelchair that Henry can use to get around with the limited motion of his right hand. While this has been a blessing for them, the downside of this is that this chair weighs over 300 pounds, and is not easily transported.

They have worked very hard to finance a modified van to accommodate this problem despite zero federal and provincial funding. The van, with its modification, ended up costing this family just under 100k, which they continue to make very costly monthly payments on.

This van allows Henry to have independent mobility during their family outings. It gives his parents moments of normalcy and has done wonders for Henry’s self-esteem. Losing it would be a detriment to their functionality.

Although we may not be able to help this family with the physical, emotional, and spiritual battle they face, ultimately I strongly believe we can alleviate some of their financial burdens. The financial burden is the last thing this family needs. Together let's help lift this burden and allow them to spend more time with Henry!