Ronald Blahunka

Help my brother Ronald Blahunka be one of the most abled disabled!

On July 20, 2014, he woke up to find the loss of ability to stand as he lost the ability to balance himself. He had been involved in multiple rear-end auto collisions, 6 in total, over the course of his 36 years of driving. All these accidents have had an accumulative effect on his body and have made the normal C curve of the vertebrae in the cervical spine irregular and pushing on the spinal column. This has limited the information from the brain to the body and back again thus causing the loss of balance. Even after an entire year of physical therapy where he had to learn to use all of his extremities all over again, it has left him confined to a wheelchair to get around in his day-to-day activities, where once he would have been able to just stand up and walk without any type of support.

In the years since 2014, he has not been satisfied with just sitting around collecting a small disability payment from the government. For the last 7 years, he has been a volunteer with AARP’s Tax-Aide program helping the elderly in the Rockford community by preparing their tax returns at no charge. He currently volunteers for Lifescape’s AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP program, in several different positions that come up during the year. To help him continue to grow he attends the annual Disabilities Expo-Chicago in Schaumburg and this year he found a new product that has just come to the market. The product is called a Zeen by Exokinetics which helps him balance and allows him to walk again.

Once on the Zeen, he found the stability to walk as close to normal in almost 8 years. He said “So this is how everything looks being 6 foot tall again. I had forgot what it felt like having been 4 feet tall because of the wheelchair.” The Zeen has given him a new life that is as close to what kind of life before losing the ability to walk. There is one drawback as the Zeen weighs in the 45-to-50-pound range. To allow him to take full advantage of the Zeen my brother needs a wheelchair-accessible minivan that can transport him and the Zeen for him to become fully independent. We are looking for help making the down payment on a reliable modified minivan that will allow him to be fully independent to take on the many challenges of life.

Ronald’s family has chosen to fundraise for Help Hope Live in part because Help Hope Live assures fiscal accountability of funds raised and tax deductibility for contributors. Contributors can be sure donations will be used to pay or reimburse medical and related expenses. To make a tax-deductible donation to this fundraising campaign, click on the Give button.

For more information, please contact Help Hope Live at 800.642.8399.

Thank you for your support!