Mobility Van for Glenn

$6,631 donated

Given by 91 generous donors in one year

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Fundraising for a Mobility Van and necessary modifications for Glenn.

Bay of Plenty

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Hello and thank you for visiting our Give A Little page!

We are fundraising to help with costs towards purchasing a mobility van (and modifications) for my son Glenn.

Glenn has a neuromuscular disorder called Congenital Myotonic Dystrophy. It is a type of Muscular Dystrophy. This condition is a progressive muscle-wasting disorder that has no cure, only management. This means a lot of ongoing follow up - a lot of appointments ranging from paediatrics, neurology, cardiology, regular therapy to name just a few.

As a result of having this condition, Glenn has significant problems with muscle weakness and developmental delays, and as he grows, it is getting harder to get him in and out of the car due to his size. Glenn is 4 years old, however he could easily pass for a 5 or 6 year old due to his height and weight. Glenn uses a wheelchair, and wears a back brace to help keep his spine straight, along with AFO's (ankle-foot orthoses).

We have been successful in obtaining a grant from the Lotteries board to put towards a van, however due to the cost of the appropriate vehicle we need, (the amount from Lotteries will cover approximately half of the cost of the van itself), we need to fundraise as much as possible in order to be able to purchase a vehicle which can then be modified to suit Glenn's needs.

We will receive partial funding for the modifications (this will cover approximately half the cost of the modifications), again, we will need to continue with our fundraising to help with the rest of the cost - modifications to be done to the van will include a rear hoist for the wheelchair, suitable seating to accommodate the family, points for the wheelchair to be secured, along with points to transport any additional required equipment we may need to take with us at any point (for example Standing Frame, or Hoist), certification etc.

Having a fully modified mobility van will make our lives a lot easier with Glenn being able to access the community more, as a result of being able to be transported in an appropriate vehicle.

Thank you for your consideration.

Regards, The Dolbel-Neville Family.

Yasmin (Yaz) Dolbel-Neville's involvement (page creator)

We are fundraising for my son Glenn Dolbel-Neville, in order to purchase a mobility vav with the necessary modifications to transport him. Any leftover funds will go towards Glenn's quality of life.

Use of funds

Mobility Van for Glenn; any surplus funds will go towards Glenn's quality of life.

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Glenn’s Journey - Update #4! 26 January 2020

Hello Team Glenn Supporters!

Happy New Year to you all. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas & New Years, welcome to 2020!

We are pleased to confirm that we have purchased the van itself!

It is presently parked up, with a drive here and there to keep it running, as it has not yet been modified. Yes, it has a personalised plate - this was originally my Dad’s plate, he kindly gave us the plate for the van. It is an honour to have one of the family names as our number plate!

We are still presently fundraising for the modifications to the van. As we mentioned in our last update:

“Enable has approved the modification application with the maximum of $12165 (incl. GST) being granted, this will cover just over half of the modification cost - our approximate cost for modifications being around the $22k mark - this includes fit-out, rear hoist for wheelchair, seating, mounting points, tracks for wheelchair, certification etc.” (update #3)

So we’re still looking at $10,000 (or just under!) to get the van modified so we can safely transport Glenn. At 4.5 years old, he could easily pass for a 6-7 year old. To be honest there’s not a lot of size difference between him and his 7 year old sister - and she’s reasonably tall as well!

As it is Summer we have been enjoying the warmer weather, and attending Speedway meetings, some of you will know us from Speedway - Daniel writes articles for a well known Speedway magazine, and I run the NZ Stockcar Crazy Photography page on Facebook (prior to this, I ran a website with a similar name - NZ Stockcar Crazy, which I started almost 20 years ago!).

Both of our kids enjoy Speedway, Glenn absolutely LOVES it, we love our home track of Rotorua.

We drew the Pounamu fundraiser just before Christmas at the Rotorua Police Station. We did a “go live” via Glenn’s Journey Facebook page to announce the winners as they were drawn. Thank you to everyone who supported this fundraiser.

We have been working on therapy with Glenn, and he has started taking steps using a walking frame (supported by me). We’re still a long way off walking independently, however this is amazing progress! Glenn will always have a wheelchair as backup however.

Jase and the Team from The Pits Media (a well known Speedway streaming service) have come on board to assist with fundraising for Glenn. They are currently running an auction for a The Pits Media shirt, which has been autographed by all the finalists for the World 240 Champs held in Rotorua this weekend. What an amazing meeting it was, the racing was great, we caught up with friends and met new people as well!

Here is the link to the The Pits Media Auction: https://www.facebook.com/thepitstv/videos/502801347327762/

Thank you to Jase & The Pits Media for your support, we are truly humbled, and appreciate it so much.

We will have some more small fundraisers coming up soon as well.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support, we really appreciate it!

Regards,

Yaz & the Dolbel-Neville Family.

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