Cassidy is an eight-year-old little girl who lives in Pennsylvania. Cassidy, “Cassi”, survived bilateral Grade 4 strokes before she was born. Cassidy lives with her parents, older brother and sister, and two cats. Cassidy has Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, and hydrocephalus, visually impaired and non-verbal due to the strokes that affected both sides of her brain. Cassidy is unable to walk without a gait trainer, sit unassisted, or crawl. Her muscles fluctuate between being loose and ridged so her body is unable to bare her own weight. Cassidy has had seven surgeries including multiple abdomen surgeries to place tubes, brain surgery to relieve fluid pressure and most recently orthopedic surgery to correct her foot that was malformed due to her trying to walk and her ankle not being able to support her. Cassi is a happy, cheerful, snuggly little girl who attends the third grade in a special needs classroom with her nurse, Miss Karen. Cassi goes to a lot of appointments to keep her healthy and strong. Cassidy sees Drs at Penn State Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as UPMC Children’s Specialty. We have weekly appointments for physical therapy with the hopes that Cassidy will one day be able to hold her body up to walk. Cassi is a mover and a groover! Her will to live, and determination to be here is evident in her strong will, stubborn and sassy personality! We have been very blessed by the ability to provide the care, adaptive equipment, therapy toys and typical needs to Cassidy over the years. We are always looking for ways to improve her life and give her the necessities she needs to thrive. The one thing we are in desperate need of right now that we cannot afford is a Wheelchair Accessible vehicle. Currently, we are transferring Cass out of the wheelchair into either our 2014 Ford Focus or into our 2015 Chrysler Town and Country minivan into a regular car seat. As Cassidy grew, we were always hoping that she would be out of the chair, regain function in her legs, or help with transfers. Cassi works so hard to make her bodywork, but time is not on our side and we are now in a situation of needing a vehicle with a ramp that allows us to keep Cassidy in her chair until the day she is able to help us. As she gets older, that dream becomes less of a possibility, but we are still hopeful. We looked into modified minivans and currently speaking to three dealerships. Our minivan is to old for conversion companies to modify. A modified used vehicle has to be less than 3 years old, our 2015 vehicle is not an option. My Ford Focus is to low to the ground. I am 5’11” and I can “flop” her into her seat, but pulling her back out when she is unable to stand up is making it increasingly difficult to pull her safely from the car. If you would like a mental image Id suggest thinking of a 4ft, 55lbs squiggly giggling octopus that either completely goes limp or goes ridged and doesn’t bend. It definitely is NOT working. After the sticker shock of talking to multiple special needs car dealerships the last few months, crying, praying and wondering how the heck we can afford the monthly payments ($700-$1000 a month), I turned to the only choice we have now, and that’s to ask for help. We need to put down a large down payment in hopes to drop the monthly payment to a payment we can afford. We have saved a little lump, but now I need a larger lump. So here goes my pride… I got to ask, and I don’t want to, but I need to, for her. Cassidy has gone through a lot in this life and a lot of it is incredibly unfair. Cassidy has a laugh that is infectious. She is happy, vibrant and oozes light and goodness. I am incredibly lucky to be her mom and we love her every second. It just needs to be a little easier, and in this one way, it could be. Thank you for reading, for sharing this LFEBridge, donating and lifting us in prayer. We will gratefully take whatever we can get. If you cannot donate, please share her story in hopes that someone somewhere may see our situation, and have a valid idea or resource that can get us the one thing we are unable to give her at this time. The girl got lots of love coming her way, we just need to get her a way to safely explore the world we want to show her. You can learn more about Cassidy on her facebook page “The C. Why Foundation” where we used her story to help raise money for various foundations through the years including Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy Foundations.
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