My younger sister has radial dysplasia which has resulted in the loss of her (barely ever in existence) thumb on her right hand, among other things. Radial dysplasia, also called radial club hand, is a congenital condition that results in a shortened forearm and deviation of the wrist. She was born without a bone in her thumb, and after many surgeries and more hours of physical and occupational therapy than anyone should clock before the age of 5, she was left with four semi-functional fingers, a splint to straighten out her wrist, and a future of personal pain as a result of bullying and self-doubt. Long story short, kids can be mean. Very mean. But Jackie is a trooper—more like a badass—and at 17 and a half (that half is still very important!), she is one of the strongest, smartest, most beautiful people I know.
Beautiful, right??
She's about to start college (ASU Honors College!) in the Fall and dreams of working in the medical field, but one thing that's never been easy (among a whole host of other physical, social, and mental dilemmas that I can’t even begin to explain here) is wearing gloves. As a kid we always had mittens for her since having all of the extra cloth in the empty finger slot made it hard to function. Still, she prevailed. She’s played sports (primarily soccer and tennis), had a short stint as a chess master, is a terrible joke teller with an infectious laugh, and has made the Honor Roll more times in her life than both my brother (who has ten years on her) and I (I’ve got 7.5 years on her) combined. That last fact is something she LOVES rubbing in our faces in a way only a little sister can. We love her anyway. Sometimes.
Back to the point of all of this, though, she has wanted to get into the medical field for probably half of her life, but the only thing freaking her out about it is never having a properly fitting glove. Well, it’s not the only thing, but it’s definitely up there. She’s been thinking about this issue for a long time, but she's too scared of rejection to reach out to medical grade glove-making companies for help. This is where I come in.
I figured that as her big sister and someone who’s got her back in everything she does, the least I could do would be to contact a bunch of companies to see who's got the biggest heart…but I wouldn't even know where to start! Being a student at a university that is most well-known for their work in medicine, you’d think this would be as easy as walking across the street to the hospital and asking to speak to the person running the supply closet…but not including the fact that I would probably look like a crazy person looking to steal stethoscopes and hospital gowns, I know that that’s not the way to get something as crazy as this done. What I need to do is what my sister did—I need to reach out to people who care and hope for the best!
What I’m looking for is this: someone who knows someone (or IS that someone) who can make my sister’s fears of her future that much smaller—someone who has the connection, ability, drive, and heart to be an innovator. I’m looking for the creation of custom-made, medical grade (it rhymes!), surgical/exam gloves.
Like I said, working in medicine is her dream, and as her older sister I want to do everything possible to help that dream come to fruition. If having a glove that fits is the first step toward realizing that her dream can, in fact, become a reality, then that's what I aim to do! Plus, giving her a box of four-fingered gloves for her 18th birthday in December would be the highlight of my year and would make topping my gift-giving skills very difficult for the rest of my family.
Thank you for reading this beast of a blog post and for constantly being a source of inspiration. I am consistently in awe of the power and heart of people helping other people.
Please share this with everyone you know so we can get the word out and maybe make a little history! Let’s get #GLOVESFORJACKIE!!!
Be inspired. Be inspiring.
Claire Morrison
Co-Founder of LEAVE LOVE, aspiring inspire-er, and obviously an awesome big sister.
Totally pulling the cute baby card, but HOW COULD YOU SAY NO TO THAT FACE?!
Talk about LEAVING LOVE!!! SoulPancake has done it again! One can only HOPE to have that much passion. I hope we all have our “holding the human heart" moment one day!
