Imagine waking up one day and being a prisoner in your own body. You can only move your eyes, you can’t walk, move, speak or even swallow. Your mind is functioning fine and you can feel everything, but you can’t communicate your wants, needs, or feelings. This all happened in a moment and with no warning. Your team of doctors inform you that you will never walk, talk, or eat again and they offer you assisted suicide. What would you do? Most people would give up, but not my brother, Paul. This happened to him in December 2022 at only 50 years old. Paul suffered multiple strokes due to an extremely rare auto-immune disease. While most people would consider this a life sentence, he refused to believe the diagnosis and made it his life’s mission to prove the doctors wrong.

Paul has had to relearn how to do everything from breathing on his own, swallowing, and communicating. When he began communicating again, he could only do so by blinking his eyes as we read out letters one at a time. He learned to be very effective in his communication as it took so long to communicate just one word. After a lot of hard work, he can now have full conversations in quiet environments. He learned how to swallow and eventually had his feeding tube removed and can now eat just about anything he wants. Paul has been working extremely hard in physiotherapy and he is able to stand up with a walker for three minutes!

Through his strength, tenacity and refusal to give up, Paul has gone from the ICU, to a rehab clinic and he’s now in a nursing home and going to physio three times a week. He has shocked doctors at what he has accomplished so far, but he still has a long way to go. This journey has taken its toll on his finances. He pays for physio out of his own pocket, and it’s been costing him almost $1600/month. He also has to pay over $2100/month for his housing (at the nursing home) as well as all other usual expenses. He can no longer work and his critical illness coverage will be ending soon.

Paul is one of the most determined and inspiring people I have ever known. I have no doubt that he will walk again. I also know that he won’t be able to get there without extensive physiotherapy. It has come to the point in Paul’s fight where he needs your help. If his story has inspired you, if you want to see him walk out of the nursing home, if you want him to feel you cheering him on, please help by donating to this campaign and spread the word! Much love and God Bless you all.