“Conductive Education is education and therapy that works. If it wasn’t for this, Ian wouldn’t be able to take any steps on his own.”

Colleen Kee, mother of three-year old Ian, who was born with cerebral palsy.

Every year, thousands of Canadian children are born with cerebral palsy. For all of them, life can be a constant struggle to reach their full potential.

Please send a gift of $25 today. It could help fund and expand a crucial therapy program – and give even more children like Ian the best possible start in life.

Dear Friend,

I want to tell you about an exciting part of March of Dimes Canada’s work, which is making an amazing difference for children with cerebral palsy. And I want to ask for your urgent help too.

Will you send a gift of $25 to help fund a groundbreaking therapy program called Conductive Education? It’s an innovative approach that combines education with rehabilitation – and it’s getting truly remarkable results.

In a moment I’ll explain exactly how, by funding this program, your contribution could help us reach out and change the lives of children with disabilities like little Ian Kee.

But, first, I must ask – will you help me raise $200,000? That’s the amount we’ve calculated we need in order to fund crucial services including the Conductive Education program in the months ahead. This service is desperately needed by children near you and all over Canada right now.

I’m thinking specifically of children born with cerebral palsy. Despite numerous medical advances, cerebral palsy is still the most common childhood physical disability. Even now, one in every 400 children born in Canada will have this condition due to birth trauma, prenatal stroke or other injury.

That’s nearly a thousand children born every single year who face enormous difficulty in trying to learn simple skills, simply because they lack muscle control and coordination. I’m talking about ordinary, day-to-day activities such as just sitting up or walking without assistance.

Unless you’ve ever had a personal connection to someone living with a disability, it’s almost impossible to understand the awful frustration of not being able to do things that others take for granted. Yet it’s precisely the situation faced by a brave little boy I recently heard about called Ian Kee. His mom, Colleen, told us about the daunting challenges he’s already faced in his young life.

“Ian was born seven weeks early. In the beginning we didn’t really think there were any problems. But, by the time he went for his nine-month check up he still wasn’t sitting up on his own properly. You could sit him up but he would always roll forward. He just couldn’t balance himself.

My doctor said, ‘he’s progressing in every other way, just give him a bit of time.’ But, the next time we went back to the doctor, he still wasn’t sitting properly. I got my doctor to refer Ian to a paediatrician. The paediatrician took one look at him and said ‘he’s got cerebral palsy.’”

That’s how, when Ian was just 17 months old, he received a diagnosis that every parent dreads. Those words had a distressing impact on Colleen.

“It was probably harder than normal, because I was six months pregnant at the time with a second child. I knew what cerebral palsy was and all I could think of was the very severe cases.”

Just imagine how worried Colleen must have been. In severe cases of cerebral palsy, children can have difficulties not just with balance and co-ordination but with essential life-skills such as eating and speaking. One in three children with cerebral palsy also has epilepsy and they are using wheelchairs.

Of course, the impact of cerebral palsy varies from child to child but, as you can imagine, every diagnosis is absolutely devastating for the children’s mothers when they first find out. Even though the paediatrician told Colleen that Ian had relatively mild cerebral palsy, Colleen was still terrified about the implications. The doctor told her:

“Ian will walk, but not until he’s somewhere between two and five years old. You have a long road ahead of you until that point.”

The paediatrician’s words were grimly accurate. Children with cerebral palsy – even milder cases like Ian’s – do face a long, hard road of difficulty and frustration. Faced with the obstacles that life has put in their path, without help, many will struggle to fulfil their true potential.

But March of Dimes Canada is dedicated to providing the help needed by children like Ian – through our innovative therapy called Conductive Education.

As with all our crucial work, we rely on you to help make it possible. Will you send a gift of $25 today to help fund this exciting project, and others like it? Your gift to help fund Conductive Education will enable more children all over Canada to access this life-changing treatment. If we can reach our target of $200,000, that would be enough to pay for 47 more children to take a full cycle of Conductive education classes each year.

This therapy is having amazing results for very young children like Ian because, essentially, it’s all to do with helping them ‘learn’, rather than forcing them to ‘work.’ If you’ve ever spent much time with a toddler, you’ll know how hard it can be to make them do something they don’t feel like doing. And, because therapy can be hard work, little ones like Ian don’t always feel like doing it.

For instance, Ian has a therapist who comes to his house once a fortnight for 45 minutes. Some days Ian wants to work with her and some days he doesn’t. As a toddler, he doesn’t understand it’s for his own good when she asks him to perform certain exercises. But, because Conductive Education really motivates him to learn while having fun, he’s always happy to do it.

It’s this basic understanding of how a child’s mind works that makes Conductive Education such a simple – and brilliantly effective – idea. Our therapists – or ‘conductors’ – are specially-trained to use songs, games and toys that will really engage a little one like Ian and make him want to get involved.

And the pinnacle of this amazing approach – for children and conductors alike – is the Conductive Education Summer Camp.

Our Summer Camp is like no ordinary camp. Our camp staff include qualified conductors who run an intensive and focused Conductive Education program, through which our campers – all children with disabilities – can grow and learn and make huge improvements to their mobility, independence and self-confidence.

But, what makes it really special is that the therapy provided through Conductive Education is such great fun that it doesn’t even feel like work. You could even say that children like Ian come to camp and literally ‘play’ themselves better!

But here’s the thing: in order to help children like Ian with important programs such as Conductive Education, I need your support. These projects make massive improvements to children’s lives – and their families’. Will you send a gift of $25 today to help make that possible?

You see, we know it works. Time and time again, we’ve seen Conductive Education help children make breathtaking transformations in their own lives. Just take Ian, for example.

A few months after Ian’s diagnosis, Colleen learned about the benefits of Conductive Education. Straight away, she knew Ian should give it a try – and in January 2009 he attended a camp for the first time. Right from the beginning, it was obvious not only that Ian loved the fun environment, but that the therapy was working. Colleen summed it up like this:

“In the five weeks Ian was at camp, he progressed, so much – more than he had in the whole previous year.”

When Ian first started Conductive Education, aged two, he had to use a walking frame to help him get about. He simply couldn’t take a step without it. But, during one of our Conductive Education programs in May 2009, he astonished everyone by taking 50 steps, completely unaided, without the use of his walker.

In total, Ian has now been to camp five times – and made even more physical progress. First of all, he left his walker behind and moved on to using special canes with four feet – called quad canes – that provide stability and mobility. But that was just the beginning, as Colleen explains:

“Now he’s off the quad canes and using the single canes, which means he’s even stronger. He’s using more of his own balance and not relying so much on the canes. You can walk to the store with him, you can actually hold his hand and he can walk, instead of having to carry him. If it wasn’t for Conductive Education, he would be nowhere near where he is.”

Thanks to our conductors’ hard work, three-year old Ian now has more mobility and independence than ever before. Colleen’s confident that he’ll be walking completely unaided before too long. It’s an amazing result, isn’t it? And so much of it is down to the learning-focused approach of Conductive Education.

Crucially, the result of all this is that Ian has made massive leaps forward, not just physically, but psychologically too. Colleen explains:

“His confidence has gown so much. Now he’s trying to climb on the tables and he’s a little monkey – climbing ladders and stuff. It’s nice to see because we’ve been waiting for that. He’s finally becoming a little boy.”

And that’s the bottom line. Conductive Education has given Ian – and thousands like him – the kind of happy carefree childhood that any of us would want for our children. What’s more, it’s the first crucial step to helping these children grow up into well-balanced adults who will reach their full potential in life.

Will you now help us provide the same life-changing therapy and support for many more children like Ian, by sending a gift today?

As I said before, we know Conductive Education works. Now we want to expand our programs and help even more children to make the same giant steps that Ian made. My colleague, Mhairi Watson, is Lead Conductor of the program. She’s knows better than most exactly how much of a difference it will make to a child’s life. Here’s what she told me recently:

“I believe strongly that so many people with a neuro-motor physical disability have the potential to make tremendous strides in overcoming the challenges of their disability through Conductive Education. Our long-term goal is to expand the camp program and make it available to everyone who can benefit from it.”

It’s precisely what your gift will help us do. If you can help, I urge you, please, to hurry. In order to meet all our current commitments – and plan the vital expansion of this life-changing work – I must raise $200,000 by no later than February 15th.

With that amount to help fund Conductive Education, we could train eight more committed Canadians to become fully qualified Conductors. It would enable many more children like Ian to access this groundbreaking treatment – and make huge improvements to their lives.

And, don’t forget, this is just one part of our amazing work. March of Dimes Canada provides a huge range of services for adults and children with physical disabilities – from stroke survivors to people living with post-polio syndrome. Since we began in 1951 we’ve worked tirelessly for one goal: to help people with physical disabilities live fulfilled and independent lives. Everything we have achieved has been because we had the kind support of people like you.

With warmest thanks for all your support – and anything more you can do to help now.


Yours sincerely,

Andria Spindel
President & CEO
March of Dimes Canada

P.S. Every single year, thousands of Canadian children are born with cerebral palsy. All of them will need help learning basic motor skills if they are ever to grow into fulfilled and independent adults. March of Dimes’ Conductive Education program can do just – but only with your help. Please send a special gift today. Thank you.