Fundraiser Started For Local Resident With Rare Disease

A fundraising campaign was recently started to help a West Islip man with an rare disease.

The fundraiser was started on GoFundMe by Nellie West on behalf of John Sinclair.

The local resident was recently diagnosed with Neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a diseases which causes symptoms such as pain in the eye and vision loss.

In addition, the diseases causes transverse myelitis, which causes weakness, numbness, and sometimes paralysis of the arms and legs, along with sensory disturbances and loss of bladder and bowel control.

After spending 7 months in the hospital, he's slowly beginning to make progress and can now transfer from bed to wheelchair with minimum assistance, according to West.

He can only go home if an electronic lift is installed and other handicap renovations are made to his home.

However, the costs of hospital, medical and transportation costs have been stressing the families finances, and insurance doesn't cover anything towards these costs, West wrote on the page.

The goal is to raise a total of $20,000 for Sinclair. Since the page was created last Saturday, a total of $1,585 has been raised.

To learn more or to donate, visit the GoFundMe page here.