The Luke Billings Foundation

Dear Friend,

This clinic has been our greatest gift!!  My son, Matthew, is now 12.  Because our private insurance only allows 1 hour of PT per day (Euro-peds requires 4 hours), we have had to tiressly implement fundraising efforts to raise the $10,000.00 per year needed for Matthew’s treatments.  With the generosity of local friends, we've been able to come to Euro-peds biannually since he was 7.  We are currently raising funds for him to return to the clinic in March.  It’s difficult to put it into words  just how Euro-peds has changed Matthew’s life. 

Upon our first visit to Euro-peds, Matthew was a wheelchair bound boy with a spirit that would light up any room in an instant.  Just before his first visit to Euro-peds, he broke his femur while at one of his traditional PT sessions here in Ohio.  This left him very insecure and weak as well.  We came to Euro-peds with some hope of rekindling his lost spirit and confidence.  What we got was much, much more.  His therapist at Euro-peds recognized his potential and began working with him on his lost confidence and strength.  Repeatedly, she would run him through a regimented routine of hot packs, massage, stretching, strengthening, gait training, and movement activities everyday for four hours a day for two weeks. This repetition and intensity allowed him to remember what his abilities once were and also find new ones never discovered.  Over the course of the two week treatment, the Matthew we once remembered was back and the new and improved version followed along. 

After intensive fund raising efforts, we returned a year later to have a chance to pick up where we left off.  Indeed, Matthew remembered the routine and worked harder than ever.  He learned new "tricks" that he could come home to show off to his family and friends.  During each successive visit, he was able to master new skills that made him more independent and made our caring for him easier.   His most accomplished treatment session was in Feb. 05 when he came to Angie in his wheelchair and left walking out the door independently using his new walker (See picture below).  Upon returning home, he entered his 3rd grade classroom and shouted “Look everybody…I can walk!”  His friends all began to cheer as Matthew made his way across the room towards the teacher.  His educational aide was standing to the back of the room crying.  The kids were whispering “Look, Matthew is walking without Mrs. Rupert’s help!”  This was music to my ears.  It was a very proud day for me and more so for Matthew.  This was a 10 year dream finally come true!  Later that summer, Angie continued her quest for teaching Matthew independence by helping him learn how to transfer in and out of his walker. 

Today, he continues to use his walker in daily situations such as at school with his friends, around the bases at his baseball games, to & from the bowling alley, and at our local community recreation center thanks to the genuine persistence of a quality therapist and great friends at the Euro-peds clinic.

"He walked away because someone did not."