Family and friends of Lily Harding are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with a Catastrophic Illness. Lily has chosen to fundraise with Help Hope Live in part because donations are tax deductible for contributors and will only be used to cover medical and related expenses.
After being born at 29 weeks gestation weighing 2 pounds 12 ounces and spending the first 64 days of her life in the NICU, Lily automatically came into the world with mobility delay and issues impacting her abilities. At two, she was diagnosed with autism and at four, she was diagnosed with ADHD, self injurious behavior, and disruptive behavior disorder.
With Lily’s complex sensory and support needs, I have been unable to work as of this past summer, and special needs childcare is way too expensive. With daily home learning, Lily also attends therapeutic programs at Seattle Children’s and Providence Everett three times a week, which will increase to five days a week in April 2026. We would like her to attend occupational therapy and various other forms of therapy like floor time, but can’t find a provider in network.
We have for months been raising money for her service dog and training. We weren’t able to meet our funding of $20,000 for the service dog fee required for the dog fee with the organizations we were approved with due to the GoFundMe fees (I don’t know why I went with them lol) and ultimately decided to not pursue the two organizations Lily qualified for (age, state, disability are all factors) due to out of date training practices that I learned more about down the road in our approval process that made me question ethics, like tethering and poor health of dogs, with many recipients mentioning their dogs were diagnosed with hip dysplasia and other physical issues shortly after being placed. We instead have found a reputable breeder through AKC with health testing etc and an ethical service dog trainer to apply our fundraising to, but with ongoing training we underestimated our goal and are saving for additional training for Lily’s service dog along with medical expenses, now with the help of Help Hope Live.
If you’re able to help towards Lily’s autism medical and service dog journey by donating or spreading the word within your community, it means the world to us!
