Golf for a Cause at Topgolf, Tampa
Imagine you wake up with your foot feeling like it weighs 50 pounds and you are trying to lift it to take your step. Every step takes strength and energy and you have to keep your balance to keep from falling. Daisy Vega and other children and adults live with this every day. They are experiencing foot drop, and approximately 70,000 people will experience foot drop in Florida.
Foot drop is a weakness or paralysis of the muscles involved in lifting the front part of the foot necessary for walking. It causes a person to drag the foot and toes or engage in a high-stepping walk called a steppage gait and increases the risk of falling.
Daisy Vega founded the Freedom to Walk Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, to help raise awareness and funds for the purchase of WalkAides® for children and adults experiencing foot drop due to multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, stroke, incomplete spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury.
The WalkAide® is a functional electrical stimulation device which when worn on the calf sends electric impulses to the affected foot, causing the foot and leg to lift. The insurance companies state that the WalkAide® is experimental and investigational though it is FDA approved since 2006. Medicare does approve those diagnosed with incomplete spinal cord injury and the VA supplement for the WalkAide®. The WalkAide® costs $5,000 and it is prohibitive to some individuals.
The Freedom to Walk Foundation is raising funds for Jole Hope, 12 yrs. old, at their Charity Golf Event at Topgolf, Tampa. Jole was born with optic nerve hypoplasia which has left her legally blind. Since 3 years old, she has been wearing a brace due to a hemiparesis, a muscular weakness on her right side.
For more information, go to www.FreedomToWalkFoundation.org/Charity-Golf-Event. Sponsorship opportunities are available! Contact via email at Daisy.Vega@FreedomToWalkFoundation.org or call (813) 546-2329. If you are unable to attend, donate at www.FreedomToWalkFoundation.org/Donate.
PAR-TEE at the Charity Golf Event, Thurs., May 24th, 6:00pm – 10:00pm, TOPGOLF, 10690 Palm River Road, Tampa! $390 Team of 6 Golfers, $65 Golfers, $40 Spectators.
www.FreedomToWalkFoundation.org/Charity-Golf-Event. Sponsorship opportunities available!