Walk with George

Hello,

My name is George. I am 38 years old and I have been volunteering for the community for the last 28 years. I have a beautiful and generous family: I have a wife, a child, 4 dogs, 2 cats, a tarantula and a hamster.

At present, I sustain every day an NGO which offers animal assisted therapy. I train people and dogs who work together to help people of all ages in dealing with the difficulties they encounter in their life. I work with dogs, making sure they enjoy being my work colleagues and I organize educational programs for the community. Every day I try to help all those who come to us.

In order to sustain the NGO's activities during the difficult times of the pandemic we are all dealing with we chose to organize a summer school for children, because this is what I spent half of my life doing. But at the end of one day, while the children were getting ready to go home, I had an ugly accident, hurting my left knee. So ugly that I can't work anymore. In fact, I have been in bed rest for an entire week. So ugly that I need surgery. This ugly: the diagnosis is anterior cruciate ligament rupture and rupture of the posterior root of the internal meniscus.

The doctor thinks I stand no chance with the knee surgery if I don't loose weight. At least 50 kg.

Maybe some people think that being overweight is a choice. Well, I assure you it is not. It is an effort for both the mind and the body. And fighting those extra kilograms is a harsh battle with many ups and downs. For me the only option to loose weight this fast and with durable results in time is a surgery - Gastric Sleeve. This type of surgery is not covered by insurance in Romania and it costs 5000 euros.

After this I will need another surgery for reconstruction of the knee and its cost is 3000 euro, without recovery costs, which will be a long and slow process. Without these surgeries, my health and my mobility are in danger.

In 2015 we won the prize for best humanitarian project at the Romanian Civic Youth Society Gala with an animal assisted therapy project entitled “Sustain their steps”. Then, it was about the recovery process of our young beneficiaries. Now, I am asking you to sustain my steps because I want to be able to continue my work with children and dogs, because I want to take my child hiking in the mountains.