A Cape Breton community is coming together to raise money to help better the life of one of their young residents.
Six-year-old Devon MacNeil lives with cerebral palsy. He nearly died at birth and has been beating the odds ever since – including a serious hospitalization this past winter. Doctors weren't sure he would make it through surgery.
“Devon has overcome more than what most people have in a lifetime,” says Devon’s mother Nichol MacNeil. “Despite everything he's been through, the surgeries, the hospitalizations, everything, he's still a smiling, happy six-year-old boy.”
Devon uses a wheelchair and lifting him, and his chair, in and out of the family van is becoming very difficult.
“Devon is getting heavier, his wheelchair is getting heavier, and I’m getting older,” says Nichol MacNeil.
Their community of Whitney Pier, N.S. is trying to help out by raising money for a wheelchair-accessible van.
“If we had the van, and had the accessible lift for him, it's just a matter of pushing a button,” says Nichol MacNeil.
The family needs $40,000 to $50,000 to purchase the new van and they are doing whatever it takes to raise the funds, including bake sales, bottle drives, a GoFundMe page, and a trust fund set up at a local bank.
“I have faith, and I'm staying positive that we will get what we need for Devon and his needs, just to make life easier on him,” says Nichol MacNeil.
While word of the fundraising efforts is only beginning to spread, there is plenty of support from Devon's neighbours and friends.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ryan MacDonald
