Anne Tansley could not figure out how she could afford to purchase a new hospital bed for her adult son, even though his health depends upon having an upright bed to sleep in.
She lost sleep worrying that he would stop breathing in the night as purchasing a new bed herself, at a cost of almost $2,500, was beyond her. Her son, Paul Stanley Tansley, who is severely autistic, is on government assistance and his parents already subsidize many of his needs, including some of his prescription drugs.
"We are a family with a severely autistic child who also suffers from obstructive sleep apnea, which means he stops breathing several times a night. He sleeps better propped up in a hospital bed, but this past year the bed he had broke and we found ourselves in need," Tansley said.
Paul Stanley, 18, has that bed now. His mother has come to believe that the gift is a Christmas miracle.
"In November, Sidekicks Mentoring gave us a wish list to fill out, asking us what our family's wishes were for Christmas. It seemed impossible, but I asked for a bed for Paul Stanley," Tansley said.
Tansley lives in St. Albert, but for the past two years Paul Stanley has spent each Monday to Friday in a group home in Edmonton and his weekends in St. Albert. The bed that needed replacing was in the group home.
A St. Albert family donated his first bed about five years ago, but it was meant for a smaller person.
"When that bed broke, we tied it together to make do, but I didn't know how long it would last. My son has medications that made him gain weight and he is six foot three inches and weighs 387 pounds."
Richard Fowler school
Both Paul Stanley and his younger sister are members of the Sidekicks program, which matches school children with a volunteer mentor. Sidekicks, which is part of the St. Albert Community Information and Volunteer Centre, also hosts a December party for the youths and each child receives a gift. In recent years, the students at Richard Fowler Catholic Junior High School have donated those gifts.
Fowler teacher Shawna Gallagher asked for wish lists so the students could provide more meaningful gifts for the Sidekicks, said program co-ordinator Sherri Koziol. Tansley's wish for a new bed was among the wishes. Gallagher admits she was taken aback by the request at first.
"It was a little different than the requests for pyjamas and iTune cards," she said.
Gallagher spent two weeks making phone calls to various organizations, which she hoped might be able to help. No one had a spare bed.
"Then just on a chance, I put it out on an email request to the parents. It was a total fluke. One of the mothers of one of my students worked at an Edmonton nursing home. She was able to get the bed donated," Gallagher said.
Gallagher said that the ultimate donators, the nursing home staff and the mother who was instrumental in making the connection, wish to remain anonymous.
In mid-December, Gallagher and her husband took their truck and picked up the bed from the nursing home, where it had been in storage. They drove it to Paul Stanley's residence, and with the help of group-home staff, carried it upstairs and set it up.
"The family was so appreciative," Gallagher said. "It was a Christmas miracle for sure."
Paul Stanley has limited speaking ability, but even so, he seemed aware of the magnitude of the gift, his mother says.
"When he saw it, he kept saying over and over, 'My bed,'" she said.
"We are so grateful because he is able to breathe sitting upright and has a better chance at fighting his sleep apnea by keeping his airway open. Without all the help from Sidekicks and Richard Fowler school, we would not have been able to do this for him."
