BOW VALLEY - Canmore's Nikol Faltysova has called the Bow Valley to action to aid with bottle and can donations for Defeat Duchenne Canada.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy affects one in 5,000 newborn boys worldwide, which results in the gradual degeneration and weakening of muscle.
The weakening and degeneration of muscles means that eventually the medical and special equipment bills will add up, as those affected those will need more and more to allow for a comfortable life.
The fundraiser is especially important to Faltysova as she’s the mother of a young boy, Ollie, who has Duchenne. Although the disease hasn’t had much effect yet on Ollie, Faltysova wants to aid those who are experiencing more drastic affects of Duchenne and need the support.
“When it comes to us, as a parent, we feel quite hopeless. So that's where we came up with the fundraiser because we like feel like we need to do something, but we can’t really do something. So, we are just trying to support those charities,” said Faltysova.
Faltysova has set up an account called hope4ollie at the Banff and Canmore bottle depots, where people can donate the money from their recyclables and the proceeds go to Defeat Duchenne Canada.
The bottle depot accounts will be open till the end of the year.
Faltysova has already raised about $2,000 in donations the weekend after World Duchenne Awareness Day on Sept. 7.
“We are just super thankful for all the people and friends who have helped us,” said Faltysova.
She said that she received a lot of support from strangers on the street even if they hadn’t seen the flyer for the bottle drive.
Faltysova will also be collecting bottles indefinitely at the end of each month for those who can’t make it to the bottle depot. She can be contacted through her Instagram, @hope4ollie, or email, [email protected].
Direct donations can also be made to www.defeatduchenne.ca.
