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GoFundMe started for Kimberley woman’s road to recovery with myositis

Danielle Dove has spent nearly 400 days in the hospital in Calgary and is now fundraising to get home
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Kimberley’s Danielle Dove is pictured in a Calgary hospital, where she has spent the last 18 months. Dove has started a GoFundMe in hopes of moving home to Kimberley. (Image via GoFundMe)

It has not been an easy road for Kimberley’s Danielle Dove, having spent the last 394 days in the hospital and being diagnosed with autoimmune myositis.

Dove, 24, has been in Alberta for the past 18 months where she has been treated. She was recently given the green light by doctors to go home to Kimberley, however this requires thousands of dollars worth of medical equipment in order to do so.

“Over the past few years, my health has declined while living, studying and working in Calgary,” Dove said. “I was admitted into the ICU in June 2021 with pneumonia. I was on a ventilator for a month, tracheotomy for four months, and peg tube for feeds. I’m keen to get back home to B.C. where I can try to settle into my new normal.”

Dove has been staying at the Peter Lougheed Center in Calgary. She says she was advised that the next course of action is a long-term care facility in Calgary, but she wants to be back at home where her family and friends are.

She says she’s reached a plateau in her progress with the Alberta health system and what they can offer, and she’s now looking for a permanent long-term placement for her care needs.

“I was raised here in Kimberley, where my family and friends reside,” Dove explained. ” I started a GoFundMe to help with moving provinces, since the government doesn’t provide any funding for this equipment, and it’s very expensive.”

The move will require a long recovery ahead, along with equipment such as a wheelchair, accessible transportation and other important medical equipment.

The diagnosis of autoimmune myositis has completely changed Dove’s life.

According to the myositis website, the autoimmune disease causes the body to attack its own normal, healthy tissue, resulting in weakened and damaged muscles. This can cause every-day tasks, like getting out of a chair or grasping an object, to become impossible.

There is no current cure for myositis, however management and treatment is possible.

“Through efforts of daily physiotherapy at Fanning Centre and South Health campus, weekly IVIG treatments, two treatments of Rituximab, and Plex (plasma) treatments, to name a few, my health has not improved as hoped,” Dove said. “I’m currently in need of full care, I’m unable to eat by mouth, walk or manage most of my own personal care. I have an electric wheelchair that allows me some freedom of movement.”

As of Monday, Aug 22, Dove’s GoFundMe has raised $11,400 of her $20,000 goal.

“Any help that you can offer to offset this cost would greatly help me and my family as we navigate this illness,” Dove said. “I’d like to thank my family, friends and boyfriend for their constant love and support.”

The GoFundMe page can be found on the GoFundMe website under ‘Help Danielle on her road to recovery’.



Corey Bullock

About the Author: Corey Bullock

Corey Bullock is a multimedia journalist and writer who grew up in Burlington, Ontario.
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