Hunter Minock

Help bring hope, mobility, and quality of life to Hunter.

Hunter is a 15-year-old boy who lives in Knoxville, TN. He was born with a rare disease called Menkes Disease. Menkes Disease is a progressive disorder that causes brain damage that leads to physical and mental impairment and often carries a grim prognosis of a 3-year life expectancy. Although his disease takes much from him, He still smiles and enjoys his days surrounded by loved ones who enjoy bringing fun to his level and finding new ways to make him smile. A smile that can light up even the darkest moments.

While Hunter is extremely limited in what he can participate in, he loves spending his time with his family. He loves being spun “round and round” in his wheelchair while listening to music, especially songs from Trolls and Minions. He has a switch-adapted tablet and toys that he giggles and gets wild for. But overall, Hunter loves being part of the fun, hearing laughter around him, and seeing his siblings play. He is known for his contagious smiles and being our drama king. He loves hearing about all the drama in school with the kids or the latest chaos. He makes it impossible to be upset in these times because his giggles will divert all your attention. However, you must continue the story! He wants all the tea!

Due to the progressive nature of his condition, Hunter’s condition will continue to make life harder for him as time goes on. He currently is 100% wheelchair-bound and only has limited movement of his head and arms. Hunter requires someone to position him and his switches for him to access play and entertainment. Many things that are considered accessible for handicapped people are still not accessible to him. Without the assistance of adaptive equipment, he would be unable to access many of the small things in life that we take for granted. This includes watching TV, playing with toys or on a tablet, leaving the house, etc.

Hunter is fundraising for a handicapped-accessible van. With everything Hunter has been through with Menkes alone, herecently had lengthy battle to find out that hisformula was not providing much-needed nutrients. He almost passed away from malnutrition and spent a month in the PICU. Hunter is now thriving with his current formula and is growing like a weed! Our once 55 lb. boy is now heading towards 90 lbs. and continues to hit the growth spurts his body missed due to malnutrition. Due We are in desperate need of a handicap-accessible van for medical needs and to also give him quality of life outside of his home. Hunter recently had a wish trip and we got to see how much he is now enjoying getting out and experiencing the world. We hope to enable him to be able to experience new things with his siblings and not be left out. He has lived long past his expected prognosis and we want to give Hunter every chance to live and play that we can while we still have him with us. After receiving a needs assessment from Superior Mobility, we found out that this will cost upwards of 70,000, and due to the van requirements, it will be difficult to find a reliable van used. Unfortunately, this cost is not deemed“medically necessary” to insurance and there are extremely limited resources available with so many families needing this.

Please donate to Help, Hope, Live in Hunter’s honor today, and ask your friends and family to give, too! We would love to plan fundraisers, too, so if you can help with that,please contact his mother at [email protected]. You can help without sending a single penny by sharing and interacting with posts about his fundraiser that we will use #HeartsforHunter. The more we get the word out, the better our chances of obtaining the assistance we need to give this sweet boy quality of life while he continues to defeat the odds and kick Menkes’ butt! Thank you for your generous support!