Andrew Colello

PAWSITIVITY FOR ANDREW

Our friend, Paige Marinelli, is climbing Mt. Washington to raise money for our sweet boy, Andrew, to get a service dog! She is climbing in Andrew’s name so that he can gain more independence and live a better qualify of life with this service dog by his side.

Read more about Andrew’s story below:

Andrew is 5 years old and loves everything his big brother loves – Superheroes, wrestling and Beyblades! He is wise beyond his years and is so very resilient. Andrew specializes in knock knock jokes and magic tricks. He’s fiery and determined, loves to snuggle and has so much good to give to this world.

Andrew also has myelomeningocele – the most severe form of Spina Bifida and Epilepsy. As Andrew’s seizures became more difficult to control I joined an Epilepsy support group and met Paige. Paige, is an amazing, young woman who is Epileptic and is passionate about bringing awareness to Epilepsy by being open and honest with her medical journey. Did I mention she also plans on climbing Mount Washington in support of raising funds for a service dog for Andrew?!

A service dog will be life changing for Andrew. He has tonic clonic, myoclonic and focal seizures. There are times where his seizures are only facial tics and almost undetectable unless you are looking for them. Because of this he is not able to sleep on his own.

There are no alarming devices that would pick up all of his seizure activity. A service dog could likely detect seizures we may be missing and give Andrew the independence of sleeping on his own.

A service dog could help with Andrew’s mobility in general but especially when he is unsteady due to medication.

He is followed by at least 10 specialists. He has many routine doctor visits, frequent hospital visits and gets routine bloodwork, MRI’s, X-rays, etc. A dog would certainly help with the anxiety of all these procedures.

Andrew is also surprisingly shy outside of the home and this could be a real confidence booster for him.

A fundraising campaign in Andrew’s honor has been established with Help Hope Live, a trusted nonprofit organization that has been providing community-based fundraising guidance to patients and their families for more than 35 years. All donations are tax-deductible and will be held by Help Hope Live in the Northeast Catastrophic Illness Fund. Help Hope Live will release your contributions to us for Andrew’s illness-related expenses only. If you would like to make a contribution toward Andrew’s medical expenses please click the GIVE button. No donation amount is too small and we sincerely thank you for your help.