EVAN SEAL
It’s taken more than a year of fundraising, but for one young man, the reward has been well worth the wait.
Featured in The Leader in 2014, Drew Daniel was born without a left hand due his umbilical cord wrapping around his arm in utero.
Throughout his life, Daniel has used numerous prosthetic arms, however the outdated technology made completing basic tasks difficult.
A little over a year ago, he began a crowdfunding campaign in an attempt to raise funds for a new state-of-the-art aluminum and carbon-fibre prosthetic arm that would give him the dexterity to perform more intricate tasks.
The cost for the new device was more than $28,000.
Daniel was able to raise $20,000, but was still more than $7,000 short.
That’s when Variety – The Children’s Charity stepped in.
“A woman put me in contact with Variety and said they may be able to help,” said Daniel. “I didn’t realize Variety offered funding for people like myself.”
Recently he was fitted for the latest high-tech prosthetic limb called the BeBionic 3 – thanks to a $7,500 contribution from Variety.
The wrist rotates 360 degree and each finger moves, Daniel said – complex functions the older model was unable to perform.
“I would like other families to know that The Variety Charity is an amazing organization,” said Daniel. “(Variety) helps people like myself achieve things that may not be possible on their own due to the high cost of most medical devices.”
This year Daniel will be featured on the 2016 50th anniversary of the Show of Hearts Telethon taking place Feb. 13 and 14, which raises money for the charity.