52 Lives

#150 Keegan

Request: Gifts / Gift Cards / Tickets / Dinner

This week, we would like to help a 14 year old boy called Keegan and his family. Keegan has a form of muscular dystrophy which is sadly terminal. He was diagnosed at age 3.

He has degenerated to the point where he now only has use of his hands and neck, and needs to be on a ventilator at night. Keegan spends a lot of his life in pain.

Keegan's mum, Rachel, got in touch with us a few months ago to see if we could send Keegan some birthday cards - which we did as part of our School Kindness Project. But we would like to do a little bit for this family.

Keegan is cared for by Rachel 24 hours a day. His dad works full-time in a warehouse and Keegan doesn’t like going to a hospice or having carers in, so his care is largely left to Rachel - she even sleeps in the same room as him every night so they can both get some rest.

“It's hard as my other 2 children sleep upstairs on their own..my youngest only being 8. Keegan spends 3 hours in a morning at school then the rest of the time it's just me & him.”

When I asked Rachel if there’s anything special we could do for her family, or any gifts Keegan might enjoy, she mentioned a few things for the children and nothing for herself. When I prompted a little more for something she would like, she had such simple requests…

“I’ve never really thought about anything for myself…I would love some new cups & plates.”

Well, would love to do something kind for Keegan and his family. So, with your help this is what we need…

What We Need

1. Gifts and gift cards: It's hard for Keegan to do very much, but he really enjoys playing computer games. His dream gift would be an Xbox One S and some games to go with it. We would love to help buy it for him, so we have set up an Amazon wishlist and added the Xbox to the list - it is quite expensive, so we have also added gift vouchers to the list so people can contribute smaller amounts. Any additional gift cards bought will be used to buy things for Keegan and a few little things for his siblings, who have been a great support. We will also make sure Rachel can get the new cups and plates she would like. 

2. Dinner: Keegan's mum and dad are rarely able to go out so we would love to send them to a restaurant for dinner. If you'd like to help with this, please either fill in the form below to let us know, or you can make a donation on the link below. 

3. Tickets for Flamingo Land: This is Keegan's favourite theme park. We'd love to buy tickets for Keegan and his family (the cost would be just over £100). If you'd like help with tickets, please either complete the form below to let us know, or make a donation using the link below.

All donations will be used to help Keegan and his family with the things listed above. Any donations above what we need for these things will be used to help them in other ways.  

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What We Did

Thanks to all of you, this is what we did!

Keegan’s mum is completely overwhelmed by your kindness. Her and the children are now making 52 baubles to sell to friends and family to raise funds to help other families in need of kindness.

Thank you so much for everyone who offered help, to Angela Barry, and thank you to GalaBingo.com for raising funds for us. We had 5 offers from people who wanted to buy the Flamingo Land tickets in the first day! So many other kind people offered donations, gifts and messages for Keegan…there are just too many of you to name but please know that every single one of you has helped to make Keegan’s life a little bit better and given his mum some much-needed support.

"I’m in a bit of shock, how lovely. Keegan has been overwhelmed with the donations. The children are writing a thank you card to you all at 52 lives for everything you have done. They will have the best Christmas and I’ll be sure to send you photos of the big day. Thank you again."

Rachel x