Help Hope Live for Lucas Ellis

July 16, 2024

The 4th Annual Percy Putt Golf Tournament is set to kick off on August 17, 2024 to raise money for Lucas's ongoing needs stemming from his spinal cord injury. This fundraising has been critical in allowing Lucas to receive cutting-edge therapy and care. With your support, we hope to make the 2024 Percy Putt another resounding success so that we can continue to provide the best care and opportunities for Lucas to reach his full potential!

Since Lucas’s spinal cord injury was diagnosed in 2021, the Percy Putt has been the focal point of his yearly fund-raising campaign. The 2023 event was by far the most successful to date, raising over $100,000 between the Tournament itself and outside donations! This money has been crucial in allowing Lucas to continue the world class therapy in Louisville, KY, which has truly been life changing. It would not have been possible for our family to provide the level of care that Lucas deserves without your generous support, as the out-of-pocket expenses exceed $200,000 per year.

The impact of the 2023 Percy Putt is impossible to fully quantify, but we will attempt to highlight the ways in which your support has impacted our family over the last year.

• Lucas has been able to do Clinical PT/OT sessions 5x/week – a more than $800/day expense. Lucas has gained significant strength and mobility from his therapies. His increased core strength has given him the ability to produce powerful coughs to clear his airways – a crucial function needed to fight off respiratory viruses. His dexterity and range of motion has improved considerably, allowing him to hold, move, and manipulate items in ways previously beyond his capabilities – including operation of his power wheelchair joystick.

• Lucas has not been hospitalized since March 2023!!! Prior to his therapies, a common respiratory virus would result in weeks-long hospital stays.

• We were able to purchase the Levity gait trainer for Lucas. The Levity provides partial weight support when walking, giving him just enough aid to maximize his muscles and keep him from tiring out too quickly.

• We have been able to live as a family in Louisville away from our home in Memphis. The sibling bond between Lucas and his sister, Fowler, has grown so much and it has been a blessing providing them with a more typical home life.

Looking Forward:

Lucas will continue to need therapies, but he also needs to develop socially and learn to live more independently. Our goal is for Lucas to start attending school this fall so that he can gain more life skills and interact with other children. To attend school, a medical aid/worker will have to accompany Lucas to assist him throughout the day and we will also need additional medical equipment for use at the school. These are considerable expenses that will not be covered by insurance. With your support, we hope to be able to hire a qualified caregiver so that Lucas can thrive outside of his therapy and home life.

A secondary goal is to provide Lucas with intensive feeding therapy. He currently receives around 90% of his daily nutrition via G-Tube. Feeding therapy will help wean Lucas away from G-Tube dependance so that he can eventually receive all his food by mouth.

We are so humbled to have your support and cannot thank you enough for the impact you are having on Lucas’s life.

November 30, 2023

Thank you Nix Family for your Giving Tuesday letter campaign to support the continuing out-of-pocket expenses regarding Lucas's care! We are so very appreciative of your love and desire to help Lucas. You have given our family a huge measure of relief and joy to be able to provide the necessary therapies for our son. This gift of your time and resources means the world to us and we thank you from the bottom or our hearts!

So many have reached out to ask if you can donate after Giving Tuesday, the answer is, "YES!" Help Hope Live was covering credit card fees for donations made on Giving Tuesday, that is the exception to Tuesday, November 28th. Each time $820 is reached, another day of combined occupational and physical therapy is covered. This is the daily cost of the three hours Lucas is in OT and PT 'training' for neurological recovery. It is rigorous 5 day-a-week therapy for a four-year-old, tiring and repetitive, but Lucas never complains. He sees the improvement in his abilities to achieve simple tasks and is encouraged to work even harder.

Our lives and Lucas's life will be forever changed by the generosity of so many caring friends. Thank you, thank you!

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