KENMORE, N.Y. (WKBW) — For seven years, Mike Shapiro has been battling a rare form of spinal cancer called Chordoma which has severely affected his mobility.
Last year, he spent months in the hospital for treatment and a stroke that left him further debilitated.
In January, 7 News was there as his longtime friends built him a wheelchair-accessible ramp so that he could remain in his apartment with his longtime girlfriend Lynn Purchase.
"It's been a really long seven months," Shapiro said in January when he was back in his own driveway on Euclid Avenue for the first time since cancer surgery.
Now, he needs help again. Shapiro can no longer walk and that means he can’t get in and out of a vehicle on his own.
“Seven years I've been dealing with this,” Shapiro told 7 News Senior Reporter Maki Becker Thursday at his home in Kenmore. “It's always one thing after another.”
He and his girlfriend got a van, thinking they’d be able to get a ramp for it. Then they learned that making it wheelchair accessible would cost them $26,000.
“The cost is just astronomical and it's money that we don't have,” said Purchase.
Shapiro is able to get transportation covered for his medical appointments, but not for anything else.
A roundtrip cost for a wheelchair-accessible ride can cost $200 round trip, “We don't have that,” Shapiro said.
“So he really can't get out much and do things. Like we can't go to a farmer's market or, you know, simple little life things,” Purchase said.
If they ever do get a wheelchair-accessible van, they said they know where they’ll first go: Glen Falls Park in Williamsville, where they went for one of their first dates.
“It's a very serene spot,” she said. “We would go there, walk up to the falls, just sit there holding hands and listening to the falls.”
Their friend, Colleen Degenhardt, has helped them start a GoFundMe campaign to help them raise the money for their van and for other medical expenses. You can find the GoFundMe here.
