Graduate With Muscular Dystrophy Gets His Dream Disney Trip

According to The Morning Call, 23-year-old DeSales University graduate Derek Szena desperately wanted to visit Disney World, but the cost of getting there and taking the nursing staff that he needs with him would cost more than $15,000.

MORE: Find out what it’s like to live with a muscle degenerative disease such as muscular dystrophy

Speaking with the newspaper earlier this year, Szena said he got the idea to travel after watching the film The Fundamentals of Caring which features a Duchenne MD patient and his carer undertaking a road trip.

Szena from Lehighton, Pennsylvania would need three nurses to provide the 24-hour care that he requires, including cleaning his feeding tube, feeding him and looking after his ventilator.  To raise the finances needed to take the trip in April he set up an online fundraising page, but he had only managed to raise $70 before he was first interviewed by the newspaper.

Thankfully, Szena’s story touched the hearts of people in his community and he raised the $15,000 he needed to make the trip. Along with the three nurses, he planned to travel down the east coast of the U.S. in April, ending up at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

MORE: Find out more about the comedy-drama The Fundamentals of Caring

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