Who's Kelda Farrell, you ask? ...
Kelda was a temporary employee of Husky Energy, when she was in a very serious and life threating car accident on June 16 2012. The resulting brain injury left her unable to control any part of her body other than her eyes. Since then, she has essentially been reprogramming her body and has now regained some function of her arms, legs, head, and mouth. Much of this reprogramming occured out of province.
Now that Kelda has progressed, she has returned to St. John's, NL to
be closer to her family while she continues with her rehabilitation
program. One of the key pieces of equipment used in New Brunswick, a
Functional Electrical Simulation (FES) or "Stim Bike", is
not available in Newfoundland. This event will be one of several
activities Husky will put off to raise funds to purchase a “Stim” Bike
for Kelda’s ongoing rehabilitation/recovery.
Although Kelda was a temporary employee during the time of her
accident, she had made an outstanding impression on her co-workers.
Incredibly intelligent, no part of her memory or brain function was
impaired outside of the ability for her brain to communicate properly
with her muscles. Her colleagues would love to see her return to work
and for this very reason, have invested a lot of time and effort into
her recovery. If there is a technology out there that we think will
help her along in her recovery, we are going to try and figure out a
way to make it accessible to her. The more financial support we
obtain, the more likely we'll be able to see her through in her recovery.
Thanks so much!!
Krista Gates-Guy (on behalf of Kelda, her co-workers, her friends and family)
Note: Because I set up the Paypal account on behalf of Kelda for the
campaign, your Paypal transaction will say "Payment to Krista
Gates-Guy". However, your credit card statement will either say
"STIMBIKEFUN" or "STIMBIKEFUNDRAISER" depending on
the number of characters that your statement allows.
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UPDATE:
There has been amazing response to
this campaign! There have been several news articles covering her
story as well as radio interviews with CBC Radio and VOCM
radio.
See articles here:
http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2014-07-18/article-3804394/Helping-Kelda-get-her-life-back/1
http://www.vocm.com/newsarticle.asp?mn=2&id=47740&latest=1
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UPDATE: WE HAVE NOW MET OUR $25,000 GOAL FOR THE STIM BIKE! Amazing!!
Thanks so much to all!!! The website is still open to accept donations
which will go towards any additional training, future maintenance
costs, any other items that Kelda may need to help in her recovery or
which could improve the functionality of the new wheelchair accessible
home that she must have built. Your generosity brought tears to my
eyes as well as her family and close friends! Ever so grateful!!
Goal is now revised to $30,000!!
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