Margo Gignac

Friends and Community,

My name is Denise Capell and I am the mother of a young dancer named Olivia. But this appeal is not about us. It is about another mother, Isabelle Dahlson, and her daughter, twenty-year-old, Margo Gignac. Once a promising ballerina, Margo was left a quadriplegic after being the passenger in a tragic car accident. The doctors told her that the first two years after a spinal cord injury are the most important. It has been a year since Margo’s accident, and while Margo has received some physical therapy thanks to local fundraising, these limited donations have run out.

Even with insurance, Margo faces many uninsured, injury-related expenses such as: co-pays and deductibles, expensive recovery-based therapy and rehabilitative exercise equipment. These are expenses the family cannot meet without your help. Isabelle has had to stop working to care for Margo, while also supporting Margo’s twin sister and ten-year-old brother.

Margo and her mother are close friends of our longtime friends, so we did not know them before the accident — it doesn’t matter. They don’t live in our neighborhood — it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that they are good people, and Margo deserves a chance for a full recovery. As the mother of a young dancer who has a full life ahead of her, I cannot stand by and not try to help. Olivia and I appeal to you to contribute in any way possible to this extremely worthy cause.

To help with this financial burden, a fundraising campaign in Margo’s honor has been established with HelpHOPELive (formerly NTAF), a nonprofit organization that has been assisting the transplant community for nearly 30 years. In 2000, they expanded their mission to include those patients who had sustained a catastrophic injury such as Margo’s. All contributions are tax-deductible, are held by HelpHOPELive in the Southeast Spinal Cord Injury Fund, and are administered by HelpHOPELive for injury-related expenses only.Won’t you please consider helping Margo realize her dream of one day walking, and perhaps dancing again, by contributing to her HelpHOPELive fundraising campaign? Your help is vital to her recovery and is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your help.

Denise Capell