Sometimes amongst the day-to-day work that the Society does to help our families, we are confronted with remarkable stories that jump out at us. Two such stories have made their way through our staff recently, and we wanted to share them with you. They show, once again, how every donation made helps so many people living with ALS in this province.
The first story involves a wheelchair donated to us back in May of 2000 – over 20 years ago! This chair became a part of 15 different families’ lives, helping them or their loved ones remain mobile while living with ALS. The chair went out to 15 different clients over its 21 years with us – each time returned, cleaned and sent back out to a new family when required. This piece of equipment was removed from the loan program in October 2021, after 21 years of service to our families in Alberta, when it was deemed no longer suitable for someone with ALS.
This chair still had some life left in it though, and wasn’t ready for the scrap heap! So our Equipment Manager Trevor, pictured here, took it down to the Drop-In Centre where it is now being used by the clients there. So that chair donated in 2000, which helped at least 15 Alberta families living with ALS, is still being used to help people today. That’s the incredible difference just one donation can make.
The second story once again deals with two charities helping each other, but in this case, we were the recipient of such a donation. In January of this year we were contacted by Terry Fox Foundation volunteer Vickie Key, about a potential power wheelchair donation. A family had made a donation of an exceptional piece of equipment to The Terry Fox Foundation and she felt it would be a better fit for the ALS Society of Alberta. Vickie was a former hospice nurse that spent years working in the community, and therefore knew very well the needs of our clients. She also knew that this chair would be of great use to many of our families as they dealt with the loss of mobility caused by ALS. While the donating family initially wanted the chair to go to someone in the cancer community, they ultimately decided that donating it where it was most needed and would be put to good use was the best choice, and agreed with The Terry Fox Foundation’s suggestion to donate it here.
This exceptional chair, pictured below, will make such a difference to so many of our families. Thank you to our anonymous donor family, and The Terry Fox Foundation and Vickie, for recognizing what a gift this will be to our community.
