{"id":17790,"date":"2025-02-21T03:02:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T03:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/02\/21\/okanagan-man-donates-specialized-van-to-family-in-need-okanagan\/"},"modified":"2025-02-21T03:02:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T03:02:44","slug":"okanagan-man-donates-specialized-van-to-family-in-need-okanagan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/02\/21\/okanagan-man-donates-specialized-van-to-family-in-need-okanagan\/","title":{"rendered":"Okanagan man donates specialized van to family in need – Okanagan"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A Shuswap family has received a gift that will make life easier after a very tough year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is life-changing for our family,\u201d said Connie Phillips.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Phillips was handed the keys to a 2002 wheelchair-accessible Chrysler Town and Country van, which will help transport her daughter, Helena.<\/p>\n

In the fall of 2023, the then-17-year-old girl fell very ill.<\/p>\n

Her condition worsened over the course of several months and the teenager lost her mobility.<\/p>\n

She was diagnosed with a functional neurological disorder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a condition that can best be described like MS,\u201d Phillips told Global News. \u201cHer brain is not sending the signals to her legs to walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phillips said that transporting the teen has been challenging.<\/p>\n

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It first requires her to lift her daughter and carry her into a regular vehicle and then disassemble the wheelchair.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d have to take her wheelchair out, rebuild it, load her in, get her into the appointment,\u201d Phillips said.\u00a0 \u201cThen when you get out, load her in, take the wheelchair apart and then load her back into the vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The specialized van was donated by Vernon resident Jeff McSweeney.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was just a feel-good thing to do, you know we wanted to help somebody,\u201d McSweeney said.<\/p>\n

McSweeney owns NOW Shuttle, a wheelchair accessible transportation service.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this business,\u00a0 I see people where, you know, their lives are changed in an instant,\u201d McSweeney said. \u201cI have a friend in a wheelchair, she\u2019s been there 27 years. A horse fell on her. Another client was cleaning his gutters. He fell off the ladder and he\u2019s a quadriplegic.\u201d<\/p>\n