#PeoplesGivesBack
Congratulations to Nancy Cassel of Elizabethtown, PA on being one of our Redeem Your Dreams winners! She won $1,000 to put toward her dream of providing a roll-in shower to her daughter with a disability.
Nancy’s Story
Nancy entered her Redeem Your Dreams submission on behalf of her daughter, Sharon Martin. Sharon was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the age of 44, leaving her without the use of her legs. MS is an unpredictable disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and body. Sharon has MS of the spine, which has confined her to an electric scooter making everyday tasks challenging to complete.
MS has stolen many things from Sharon, like one of her favorite activities prior to her diagnosis, hiking. It has also stolen her career in the culinary field, preventing her from being able to work in restaurants where standing is required for long amounts of time. Then there are the bouts of severe pain that accompany MS and the four-hour infusions needed to help treat her condition.
However, Sharon has never let her disease get her down. Nancy describes her daughter as being very considerate of others, even as a young girl. Sharon is always putting the needs of others before her own. Despite the challenges of her disease, Sharon is still hopeful that her condition will not worsen and she is grateful to be able to enjoy her life with the mobility she has left.
At 57, Sharon has been living with MS for 13 years and has tried to adapt her lifestyle to accommodate her disability. Thankfully, she lives in a one story home and was able to acquire a handicap van to assist with her mobility. But one thing that she lacks is a handicap accessible shower. Sharon has been taking sink baths for 13 years and her mother wants nothing more than to provide her daughter with the opportunity to shower again – something that many of us take for granted every day.
Nancy plans to use the $1,000 toward an ADA roll-in shower that will be installed in Sharon’s home. A roll-in shower is designed for people to directly roll into the shower using a shower wheelchair. Nancy and Sharon are incredibly thankful for this opportunity and are looking forward to making Sharon’s bathroom more accessible.
Congratulations, Nancy and Sharon!