Andrew Philip was in a tight spot – he wanted to find a place to live, a way to get around and a way to be near his children, all challenges that were a little more difficult due to the fact Philip has multiple sclerosis.
“Anybody that sees me sees I have a terrible time getting around,” he said, as he slowly makes his way from the door to his seat. But with the help and support of the local MS society, Philip is a little more settled, with a place to live and a way to get around with a motorized scooter.
Philip moved from Prince George to Cold Lake in the middle of this past July with his then-wife, but in the wake of his separation, he needed to find a new place to live.
“He was in pretty desperate need,” said Gail Plouffe, advocate and equipment coordinator with the Lakeland MS Society. One option could have been finding a long-term care facility, but with long waiting lists for such spaces, even that option wasn’t viable.
But at a time when Philip needed help and a place to stay, the MS Society was there. Since Philip’s children lived in Cold Lake and he wanted to be near them, the members of the society went into hyper-drive, calling acquaintances in the city or in nearby villages like Ardmore to find him a place to live, but with no success.
“The next step was finding some place here,” Plouffe said. A real estate agent found Philip a place to rent in St. Paul, a house all in one level. “He had no furniture. We started asking people, ‘Do you have anything? Someone is in need, we need some furniture,’” said Plouffe. In true St. Paul fashion, people started donating and buying items for Philip, while Plouffe got him a pass for the Action Bus and food from the food bank for his first night in his new home.
“I’ve gotten a lot more support out here than I did in Prince George,” said Philip, noting Plouffe’s husband even helped him put together his new furniture.
Still, Philip had his work cut out for him, since he had to get around largely with the use of his wheelchair. “He was wheeling his wheelchair uptown; he was dead tired,” Plouffe said.
The society figured he could extra help. With the help of a golf fundraiser put on by Universal Geomatics Solutions and Newcap, and through funds raised through its annual MS Walk, the society managed to help nine people in the Lakeland region with equipment, including the purchase of a new $2,800 motorized scooter for Philip.
Philip said he can get around town much more quickly, and can even take his two children around town, using the scooter. “I go around a lot,” he said, adding the coming winter won’t stop him from being able to get out and about. “I’m going to have to really bundle up when I go out.”
Philip notes he’s still trying to adjust to his new life in St. Paul, for instance, by joining the seniors’ curling club to stay active and to enjoy sports. But in the interim, he’s thankful for the support he’s got from the MS Society.
“They’ve just been so helpful to me,” he said. “They do whatever they can to help so you’re not just on your own.”
“As long as we can, we will help him out and help him stay independent,” said Plouffe. “That’s what we do for everyone - if we can do it, we will.”
