MIDWAY, Tenn. (WJHL)- 10-year-old Dagan McMahan has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 2, a degenerative disease that weakens the muscle in his body. Dagan is unable to walk or stand; he gets around in a powered wheelchair.
Christina Foshie has been Dagan’s nurse since he was two, but when his caretaker/guardian passed away in 2021, Foshie and her husband got custody of Dagan.
“I had always told his Nana that if anything ever happened to her that I would do whatever I had to do to make sure he didn’t end up in a group home,” Foshie told News Channel 11.
The Foshie family currently has a wheelchair-accessible van, but its condition has been giving them issues. Christina Foshie says the van is unreliable.
“The underneath is all rusted out, the door doesn’t close all the way so you can’t have a conversation in it, you can’t hear anything,” said Foshie. “The air conditioning in the back seat doesn’t work, I mean its broke down on us before.”
The Foshie family wants to take Dagan to new places, but the unreliability of the van restricts their areas of travel.
“Our first trip, we want to take him to the arc in Kentucky up near Cincinnati, and we would love to take him to the beach, he has never been to the beach before,” said Foshie. “Our ultimate goal is to get him on a cruise.”
The family is looking to raise 30 thousand dollars to get him a used, but better-condition van. They have started a gofundme page and have already raised 17 thousand dollars.
“30 thousand and that’s what a decent used wheelchair van costs, a brand new one is upwards of 60 thousand and we just can’t swing that,” said Foshie.
Dagan said his dream vacation destination is Disneyland, where they hope to take a trip in the future.
