An Airdrie mom said she’ll have a much happier Christmas this year knowing some of the pressure brought on by her two daughters’ diagnosis of a neurological disease has been alleviated by the selfless act of an anonymous donor.
Shanna Leavitt said she recently found out her daughters, Kadence, 11, and Addison, 8, have Fredreich’s ataxia. The inherited disease affects approximately one in 40,000 people, according to Muscular Dystrophy Canada. Symptoms include loss of arm and leg co-ordination, vision and hearing loss, and a serious, life-shortening heart condition.
Once the girls were diagnosed, Leavitt said she started to think about the need to move into a single-level home.
“Addison is using a wheelchair a lot more lately,” she said. “I’m carrying her up and down the stairs and getting in and out of the bath is getting harder, so when everything came out, I thought, ‘we’re going to need to find a new home.’”
Thanks to help from the Airdrie Angel program, Leavitt will move her family into a single-storey home by late summer 2016. An anonymous donor has purchased a home in the same neighbourhood where the family currently lives and will pay the mortgage until the renovations needed to make the home accessible for Leavitt’s two daughters are completed.
Once the family moves in and their current home sells, Leavitt will take over the mortgage payments.
“I’m beyond excited about it,” she said. “It’s a change for us. It’s difficult because it’s reality for us, what’s happening, but on the other side it will be good to know the girls are safe and they can get around.”
Leavitt’s family has also pitched in.
“There’s so many appointments, so much Shanna has to worry about every day, whether it’s physio or eye therapy or doctors appointments,” said Leavitt’s sister, Amanda Balint. “She has to make sure they’re still going to their swimming lessons and their music lessons. We just wanted her to focus on the girls day-to-day, so what we said to her was, ‘don’t worry about (finding a new home), we got it.’”
The four sisters grew up in Airdrie and Balint said she wasn’t surprised the community has stepped forward to help one of its own.
“It’s spiraled. Airdrie has already been incredibly generous for this family. It’s pretty cool.”
Airdrie-based contracting company WPI Renovations will help with renovating the Leavitt’s new home.
“Everything is needed in this home. Hallways need to be widened. Doorways need to be widened,” Leavitt said. “The bathroom and kitchen need to be accessible. I want them to be able to do everything that we all do whether they need to do it from a wheelchair or not.”
Owner of WPI Renovations Scott Werenka said he, his staff and contractors will “hit the house hard” once the possession date, in late April 2016, comes along.
“We’ll make it as accessible as possible. We’ll probably work with a local professional who does accessible housing recommendations and we’re going to implement it,” he said.
Getting involved with the Airdrie Angel program isn’t something new for Werenka.
“I like to work with Airdrie Angel as much as possible in any way I can,” he said. “I saw an opportunity for a contractor, so I thought I’d jump on it and see how many different trades we can bring on and make it happen quick.”
The Airdrie Angel program, founded by Michelle and Matt Carre, is an Airdrie charity that finds ways to help people in the community. Angels nominate friends and family to receive the charity’s help.
“We want to raise a lot of money for Shanna so we can do these renovations. We can create an amazing house for these girls and relieve some of the stress associated with such a debilitating disease,” Michelle said.
Matt donated his services as a realtor and the Airdrie Angel program will find the people to complete the renovations.
A GoFundMe account, gofundme.com/ds749w8k, had been set up to collect donations, and anyone interested in helping directly with the renovations can contact the Airdrie Angel program through the website, airdrieangel.ca
