For those of you who’ve been following my posts about my sister’s journey since her accident almost two years ago, my apologies for not updating you sooner! If you’d like to get up to speed, you might like to read this post or start from the beginning.

Well, last October we held a very successful fundraiser thanks to my lovely friend, Jenn Coltton from Eleven Events who helped us make it happen! We raised around $14,000 and have been using the money people kindly donated, towards Candi’s treatments. Candi has an incredible team of specialists who all happen to be beautiful and loving people as well. Candi adores them all!

I’ve spoken about the three amazing treatments Candi is currently receiving, in part 6 if you’re interested in learning more. But just briefly, we are taking Candi to see the wonderful Dr Beck from The Institute of Function Neuroscience to work on her brain, Dr Dyczynski from The Remede Centre to work on her heart and nervous system, and Walk On for her body.

Check out this video my mum did showing some of her treatments in action!

 Where Candi’s at…

Candi has been making great improvements with her speech! Due to the strokes Candi had, she experiences Expressive Aphasia – difficulty in expressing her thoughts in full sentences. She still has a long way to go, but it’s definitely noticeable at how far she’s come!

As for her body, Candi has more feeling in her legs which is VERY exciting! What we’ve been working on the most at this stage however, is getting more movement in her arms and relaxing her bicep muscles so her arms hang down normally. She has increased tone in her arms due to muscle spasticity, which causes them to be quite bent at her elbows.

Candi has also been weened off the anti-depressants which is super duper! One by one, we are working on reducing all of her medications 🙂

It’s obviously still an extremely difficult time for her. She keeps saying to me “But I can’t do ANYTHING”. It breaks my heart seeing her so helpless. Thank goodness she still has her personality and is 100% cognitive. And having such a loving and supportive family helps to keep her spirits up.

And my mum. I really don’t know where we’d be without my mum who is Candi’s daily advocate, carer, companion and best friend. In total, my beautiful mother does 8 hours of travel per week in the wheelchair taxi accompanying Candi to all her treatments. She’s also set up a blog, called Journey with Candice and has a YouTube channel filled with all the videos she films and edits. This Channel shows videos of beautiful Candice on her journey beyond quadriplegia. They tell the story of her progress through the various cutting edge treatments that we have available here in Perth, Western Australia, and aim to educate and bring hope to other families in similar circumstances.

So far mum’s channel has 70 subscribers and has had nearly 15,000 views! I’m so proud of my mama bear and all that she has and continues to do for my spirited, inspiring and beautiful sister (inside & out).

Here is another video my mum created, which she’s called Journey of Intent. This beautiful vid shows what Candi’s intent is, and what we all so desperately want for her one day.

If you’d like to subscribe to mum’s channel, also called Journey with Candice, you’ll find more videos on Candi’s journey, plus we’d love your support!

Love Liz

P.S. in honour of my courageous sister and supportive mother, feel free to leave a positive comment below to lift their spirits. We’d love to hear from you 🙂