Two-year-old toddler’s family planning Ontario trip to get him care
Another Bud, Spud and Steak Dinner will be taking place at the Selkirk Legion in support of a local child. Greyson Henzel, who turned two years old this past August, was recently diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy. This is a lifelong condition that will require medical treatment and volunteers are hoping to raise funds to support his journey.
“He’s always very happy, very determined and energetic. He’s just starting to learn to talk in closer to full sentences. We’re entering those terrible twos. He’s a little less mobile than the average two-year-old but he’s definitely right there otherwise,” said Greyson’s mom Jilian Henzel.
She says that he’s very much like most boys his age having a love of cars and dinosaurs.
However, at 21 months old Greyson was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy which is a genetic neuromuscular condition that causes muscle weakness and atrophy, and is progressive in nature.
“As a baby, he was pretty much normal. He was hitting his milestones and started rolling over when expected and everything. Around one year, we noticed that he wasn’t really anywhere close to trying to learn to walk, or stand or anything like that,” said Henzel.
At that point, they weren’t largely concerned as every child is unique in their development. However, when he wasn’t reaching those milestones by 18 months his parents and doctors agreed that they would start investigating.
After seeing different specialists and doing tests their neurologist was the one to give them the diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy which a progressive condition which means that it gets worse with time.
Though the condition is not curable at this time, there are recent treatments that are available and Greyson and his family will be travelling to Toronto to receive spinal muscular atrophy intensive rehab.
“Being that he’s at a peak developmental age, [his doctor] felt it would probably be something that we would benefit from taking part in,” said Henzel.
The difficulty with this rehab is that as it’s specialized it’s only available in Toronto, ON. This means that the family will have to take time off of work and travel to Ontario for the six weeks that the treatment takes. Though our health-care system is free in this country. Taking time off of work as well as other incidental expenses to do with this travel are not covered.
The family is currently on the waitlist for this treatment and expect to get the call that it is their turn in the new year.
Because she knew this is a difficult time for the family, Wendy Meger who is Greyson’s father Keaton’s godmother, jumped into action. She contacted Linda Rosser and the group who recently helped with a fundraiser for Zayden Thomas and they have decided to team up to put on another Bud, Spud and Steak Dinner in order to take the financial pressure that this unexpected trip will take off of the family.
The event will take place on Oct 18 at 6 p.m. and tickets will be $30. Support tickets are also available at whatever amount residents wish to give and there will be a silent auction at the event as well as prize draws. Monetary donations that will go to the Henzel family can also be made at Home Hardware in Selkirk.
Any people or businesses who would like to support in a different way can also donate to the silent auction at the event by contacting Meger or Rosser.
“There’s going to be lots of good prizes. It’s a great cause. It will help the family tremendously and they need all the support that they can get,” said Meger.
To purchase a ticket for the event, if you have donations for pick up or if you have any questions contact Meger at 204-785-2773 or Rosser at 204-482-5556.
