Nevaeh Crews
Her name is Heaven spelled backwards but Nevaeh Crews’ life in Callahan has been quite the opposite. The 11-year old girl suffered a stroke when she was six and was diagnosed with Moyamoya. The disease is a rare, progressive cerebrovascular disorder caused by blocked arteries at the base of the brain. The name means “puff of smoke” in Japanese and describes the look of the tangle of tiny vessels formed to compensate for the blockage.
Her doctors told her she would never walk, talk or function like a normal child. Nevaeh refused to believe that and threw out her wheelchair and walker despite being paralyzed on one side. Since her stroke, she has learned to eat again, write with her other hand, tie her shoes with one hand and speak. Since she is in constant pain and too big for her parents to bathe her anymore, her doctor recommended a walk-in tub but it is out of the family’s financial reach.
Nashville-based Safe Step Walk-In Tub Company, the world’s leading seller and most decorated manufacturer of walk-in tubs, heard about Nevaeh’s story and decided to help the family. The company has a national program of giving called Safe Step Cares in which it awards those in need state-of-the-art walk-in tubs at no cost. In the past three years, Safe Step has donated approximately a tub a month to needy recipients. Nevaeh is the first person in the Jacksonville area chosen to be part of the Safe Step Cares family.
“We were moved by Nevaeh’s story and Safe Step is in the business of changing lives everyday” said Derek Farley, who oversees the Safe Step Cares program. We are here on purpose and with purpose to change the life of a hard luck little girl. We are pleased to provide her with a tub at no cost to show her that Safe Step cares.”
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