A fundraiser launched in Saguenay to help a mother from Forestville

A fundraising campaign was launched in Saguenay to provide a mother from Forestville with a new vehicle adapted to be able to transport her severely disabled 13-year-old son, while she increases the number of medical appointments in Chicoutimi, Quebec and Montreal.

I didn’t know at all, at all, at all what to expect. I was expecting to have a little baby – it was my first child – to have my little baby, to have him in my armssays Mélanie Bouchard with her son William in a video interview.

But that’s not what happened for Mélanie Bouchard during the birth of her son William.

He was on an incubator, with a tube, intubated, a pump. He had like 10 doctors around himcontinues the single mother who lives in Forestville, on the North Shore.

This is because William was severely handicapped from birth. The condition was caused by a virus that Mélanie contracted during her pregnancy, and which belongs to the same family as herpes, cytomegalovirus.

When they did my tests, my tests were negative. My body had been fighting the virus. So, I did not have cytomegalovirus, unfortunately I had infected my fetus.

William will soon be 14 years old. Today, he is deaf, mute, must be force-fed and suffers from a profound intellectual disability. He also suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

I am followed by several specialists who have several ways of seeing things. It will depend a lot, it will depend on him, it will depend on his health, she emphasizes.

Some specialists believe that its life expectancy is quite limited. Some doctors see it reaching 30 years, while others see a shorter duration.

Then they think that William, if he makes it to 18, that’s finefigures the mother.

Many trips

Mélanie has to make more trips to Chicoutimi, Quebec and Montreal from the North Shore for medical appointments.

But the family vehicle keeps breaking down.

Once with the van red, well, we got stuck. It smelled strange, so we went to one garage, another, after another, then there was one who could help us. I don’t remember what they did, but they gave us hot chocolate!relates William’s sister, Anna-Ève.

The co-owner of Relais La Chapelle on the Monts Valins, Mylène Aubry, was touched by Mélanie’s story.

It was a customer who arrived at the campsite. […] Then I bonded with her. I saw her go, and I really thought she was a good person. She was truly human. She really takes care of William a lotremembers Mylène Aubry who is also co-owner of Camping Au soleil levant, in Saint-Eugène-de-Grantham in Center-du-Québec.

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She decided to help him with the new fundraising campaign for the foundation she created a few years ago. Two snowmobiles will be offered to holders of 750 tickets at a cost of $100.

My sister died at the age of 24 from a brain tumor. Then, I noticed that there weren’t enough foundations donating to develop, in fact, to have more machines to do more tests, so that these people can heal.she adds.

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Part of the funds raised will be used to purchase the vehicle adapted to transport William and his three brothers and sisters, through the Chicoutimi Lions Club.

We will take care of all the logistics of purchasing the vehicle, handing it over, following up on everything, precisely, behind this foundation.announces Frédéric Jean, president of the Chicoutimi Lions Club.

The Forestville branch also supports the project.

The other part of the money raised through the draw will go to the Caribou-Conscrits snowmobile club, without which the business would not have as many customers.

The draw will take place on March 29.

With William everywhere

However, the family vehicle is not only used for medical appointments.

Mélanie, she really devotes herself a lot to William. That’s what’s beautiful about it, is that she brings it everywhere. […] She takes him to La Ronde, she takes him to the amusement centers which were not far from our campsite. She really takes it everywhere, to the cinemalists Mylène Aubry.

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Mélanie Bouchard wants to offer William the most beautiful moments until the very end, when a crisis could suddenly cost him his life.

I try not to think about that and then I tell myself, she begins, wiping away a tear, if it ever happens, I will react, in the moment. I try to look on the bright side, then tell myself that I gave him the best I could. He has experienced many, many things. I try, I bring this child with me everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere…