Dear Friends,

Welcome to our fundraising page!

All contributions will benefit my local Children's Miracle Network Hospital. Any contribution will help, and all donations are tax deductible.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story and think about all the kids that are taken great care of at Johns Hopkins.  This was written as part of my college essays. I remember clearly as I opened my fourteen year old eyes, my parents sitting in the cramped Pediatric ICU room staring at me intently. Slowly they came over to my bed and with shear sorrow in their eyes they leaned over, held my left hand and softly told me I had suffered a massive stroke. In almost an instant my entire life had changed and I had lost my ability to move my entire right side including controlling my ability to speak. Almost immediately, I realized I was in for the fight of my life! In spite of suffering tremendous cognitive and physical impact, I was determined to use this as an opportunity for me to show others what could be done through hard work, dedication and a relentless pursuit of becoming my old self. Hours and hours a day of therapies for weeks and then months led me back to some relative normalcy. I was thriving in school, my doctors seemed to have placed me on medicine that would keep me from having another stroke and I was slowly getting use to life back on campus.

When Covid 19 began to rear its head, my therapies quickly dissipated and I was in school virtually. I was still able to coach my youth Pipeline Soccer team every Tuesday and Thursday evenings and enjoy games on the weekend (I was a soccer and lacrosse player before my first stroke but  my neurology team will not allow me to play any contact sports any longer). I even taught myself how to play piano. I really do credit the neurologists and interventional radiologists with saving my life. I worked hard to get back to work with my robotics team which went to World’s the year prior.

Then without any warning sign at all and after nineteen months of recovery, I suffered another stroke. My doctors, my family and I were stunned. This one affected my sight and gave me terrible double vision for weeks.  Therapy had begun again and although Covid was still rearing its ugly head, I was able to improve very quickly. My doctors have always expressed great satisfaction and maybe even surprise at the things I accomplish post stroke. We changed my medicines and we were back on the road to recovery (or so we thought). Just four weeks later I suffered another massive stroke. This time it was in my cerebellum and they were very concerned that if the swelling kept increasing they would need to do a craniatomy to release the pressure. I told my father while in the Emergency Room that I felt like if I went to sleep that I would never wake up. He told me that everything was going to be fine and he had my back (he has said this almost everyday for the past two and a half years). I told home I had way to much to accomplish to die here and with some tears in our eyes we awaited the doctors words. Thankfully the pressure never escalated to the point where I needed a procedure, I was home in a week and back in therapy again. It is my willingness to push through the boundaries around me so I can create a new expectation of what I can accomplish. My future is bright and I cannot wait to see what it holds and how many people I can positively impact. I cannot thank the doctors and nurses enough for everything they have done for me!

Thank you for visiting our fundraising page!

-Team Noah