Fourteen-year-old Faith is a happy, bubbly, outgoing young person with quite a contagious laugh. She loves being active and is always looking for new ways to stay fit and connect with her family. She sounds like most young people - until you hear her story about the physical challenges she faces and how your support of Shine and our partnership with Motion continues to help her gain strength.
Faith is one of two people in Canada who lives with Krabbe’s disease, a degenerative condition that causes progressive neurological issues like paralysis. Very little is known about her condition, development, and treatment, which can be very scary for Faith and her family. Faith’s parents have done everything possible from since she was in utero, to give her a fighting chance.
Faith shares that her greatest barrier is not being able to walk. Her muscles don’t grow as fast as her body which results in high muscle tone that causes stiffness. Medications, muscle injections, tendon surgery, and physical therapy helps loosen Faith’s muscles – but this treatment is limited and costly for her family.
It takes a toll on her, not just physically, but also socially when she is away from school and her friends for treatment. Finding fun ways to move and improve her body, like an adaptive bike, was on the top of Faith’s list to help improve her quality of life. After trying adaptive bikes at school, Faith’s mind was set on a big dream. She knew that owning her own bike would give her unlimited access to exercise, build her leg and hip strength as a more leisurely form of physiotherapy, and open her world to endless adventures with friends and family.
Faith felt the power under the pedals of her new lime-green adaptive bike at her Shine Dream presentation. With a boost of confidence and the support from the community celebrating her new bike, Faith biked down the sidewalk for the very first time without any assistance. Her parents were astonished by their daughter’s new achievement as everyone cheered her on!
“She really enjoys the freedom of being outside, riding a bike like everybody else does. She always wants to get out there and be on it. She hopes to ride with friends in the future,” her mom shares.
Faith looks forward to years ahead filled with cycling adventures, fitness, and fun movement. The possibilities of where Faith’s adapted bike can take her are an open road. “Hopefully, her bike will give her enough strength in her legs and hips to stand in a walker one day and give her that motion of actually being able to walk. There are kids with her diagnosis that can walk. We are very realistic that it might not happen, but it is something to look forward to,” Faith’s mom concludes.
Faith’s adaptive bike may one day lead her to walk. Her story is just one of many powerful examples of the extraordinary difference your donation can make.
