A mystery donor has chipped in $6000 to make a family’s dreams of a life-saving dog for their disabled son a reality.
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The local charity trust, which wishes to remain anonymous, offered this week to donate the remainder of the cash needed for Kayle Griffin, 10, to receive a Smart Pup-trained epilepsy seizure response dog.
Kayle’s mum Christy Cook was overwhelmed with the pledge, and the support from the wider Ballarat and Linton communities and businesses who have helped hit the $20,000 fundraising target in less than three months.
“I’m just stoked, overwhelmed,” she said.
“It’s incredible, emotional and will make such a big change to all our lives.”
The dog will be Kayle’s best mate, by his side 24/7, and be trained to alert his family, carers and teachers to the onset of a seizure.
Kayle not only has epilepsy, but is non verbal, autistic, has Angelman-like syndrome, OCD and has tics, which means he cannot let anyone know a seizure is starting.
If Ms Cook can give Kayle medication within the first five minutes of a seizure, she has a chance to control it. Otherwise it must take its course, and one particularly horrific seizure last year left Kayle in a coma, and with temporary paralysis when he finally awoke.
His worst seizures occur at night, though he also suffers seizures during the day, the nature of which are changing and becoming more difficult to detect.
The family had initially been told the dog would cost $25,000, but this week the figure was confirmed at $20,000.
Ms Cook has run a series of fundraising events including last weekend’s Cruise for Kayle car rally which travelled through Ballarat, Linton, Snake Valley, Burrumbeet and Learmonth.
“It was incredibly stressful waiting to see whether they’d all show up, but to see them roll in to our home town of Linton was emotional and amazing,” Ms Cook said.
Kayle was guest of honour, riding with his grandfather Colin Bowen in his classic car.
“Kayle absolutely loved it and when they got back to Masters (where the rally started and finished) he was trying to get in to other people’s cars to go for a ride. One of my mates had to take him for a cruise around the car park before she could leave,” Ms Cook laughed.
The event added more than $1300 to the fundraising total with Trotters and Ballarat Lions Club also pledging donations on the day before the charity trust offered to cover the rest.
Even though the target has been met, several fundraisers are ongoing and will help cover ongoing costs for the dog once it joins the family at their Linton home. Ms Cook has asked the NDIS support them with these costs but has been told her requests are unlikely to be met.
Ms Cook pledged to help others in need if they end up with more money than required.
“If we have no more need for funds for Kayle, the extra will be donated to Country Hope, a charity who supports families with seriously ill kids get to much-needed medical care,” Ms Cook said.
Read more about Kayle’s need for an epilepsy response dog here
