Madeline Wilcox

The “Make It Happen for Madi Challenge” is fundraising to help Madi continue medically necessary, high-level, life-sustaining, mental health care that is no longer being covered by insurance, despite the recommendations of her psychiatrist and therapists. To save her life, she was admitted to a residential treatment care facility that specializes in helping teens regain hope… We humbly need your help. To read her FULL STORY, click “See All” under “Updates” and find the first post dated March 19.

Family and friends of Madeline Wilcox are raising money for the nonprofit Help Hope Live to fund uninsured medical expenses associated with a Catastrophic Illness. Madeline’s family 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.

Make It Happen for Madi Challenge… Holding on for Dear Life

Madi is our 16 year old vibrant, spunky, intelligent, beautiful daughter who wants to give up on life. She is a girl who is always the first to help her peers and to come to anyone’s rescue should they need it, but is struggling to be her own hero. Madi is determined, confident and has adopted the mantra… “Make It Happen!” And she has! But when a child wrestles with an underlying mental illness, the weight of the world grows stronger and heavier on a young girl’s shoulders until she cracks. 

Madi is a girl who used to dream of playing basketball in college and pursuing a degree in Sports Medicine. She was a straight-A student and had aspirations of being either an athletic trainer, a sports physical therapist or an EMS personnel. In the summer, Madi was an amazing lifeguard and loved every minute of it. She was on the high school JV basketball team, Varsity swim team, in sports med classes and was ecstatic that she was recommended by her teachers to enter Marine Biology. She is especially artistic and brought that talent to cake decorating, baking, designing hairstyles and various make-up creations. In everything she did she gave 110% to “Make It Happen.” What we didn’t know was all the suffering she was dealing with “behind the curtain.” She had been battling severe depression and anxiety and we didn’t even know it. She was a master in making it seem like everything was ok, but it wasn’t. 

After a long, terrifying year, and to save her life, it was with great trauma and sadness that we had her admitted to a residential treatment care facility that specializes in helping teens like Madi, regain hope in themselves and hope in life.

As a quick overview to our cause, we are fundraising to pay the care fee for the residential treatment facility Madi is currently residing at. Our insurance has recently told us they will no longer pay for her care and instead of gradually stepping down her coverage as is typically the process, we were outright denied any more coverage, despite the recommendations of her onsite psychiatrist and therapist. We are in desperate need to fund her stay to see her through to the completion of the program she is currently in or we will be forced to pull her prematurely from what has been, the first program that has made any substantial difference in her mental health in the last four years. We cannot disrupt the successful treatment she has gotten so far or we will risk her sliding back to behaviors she is not yet able to overcome, as well as run the risk of having to revert back to treatment options that have historically and consistently fallen short, inclusive of abusive treatment to her verbally and physically. The amazing residential treatment facility we are trying to keep her at, has given us the military discount fee of $7,500.00 per month. After exhausting all our resources over the last five months, we desperately need your help! Here is her story… (scroll below to the very first UPDATE on March 19 to continue reading Madi’s “FULL STORY” pictures follow)

UPDATE 6/1/25: THANK YOU for everyone who has contributed to our campaign so quickly! We raised the April funds in only THREE HOURS!!! And in 4 days we raised enough to support Madi for 4 months… We are beyond thankful!! But we still need your help! Our current goal will support her for a total of 6 months… unfortunately it looks like she will be there for another 4 after that. She has been diagnosed with clinical depression, anxiety and wrestling with attachment disorder traits… common for kids in residential treatment (boo! but necessary, also boo!) Please help spread the word and send prayers for her healing, the strength to keep moving forward and that we can provide for her until she has graduated the program. On average, it takes kids 8-12 months to graduate this amazing program, it looks like she will need the full 12. Some kids stay for up to 18 months… please pray that is not her journey!! From the bottom of our hearts…THANK YOU SO MUCH for all you have already done… there are no words!!!