Bottle Drive Raises Over $1,500 for Princeton Teen

Monday, 3 October 2016 at 15:32

A bottle drive in Brantford over the weekend raised a lot of money for a local teen who needs to leave the country for an expensive surgery.

PRINCETON - Over $1,500 was raised at a bottle drive to help a teenager from Princeton.

Caroline Smith suffers from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a rare condition that breaks down the connected tissue inside the body. She is going to need at least two more surgeries and because they can't do it in Canada, the surgery will cost the family $120,000. Szabo brothers Car Care in Brantford hosted the most recent fundraiser and family friend Lisa Szabo says they are also trying to raise some awareness.

"Even though they do still have to go to the United States to have this surgery done, maybe with all this awareness, our Government will train our doctors here because that's the problem. She will need more surgeries in the future and they are on her lower back and we do have doctors here that can do that, it is just in the spine area where they are going to be fusing, that they don't know how to perform these surgeries. There are so many other families out there in Canada dealing with this, there is a family in St. George that is going through this as well."

Caroline was supposed to have the surgery in October, however she has just been informed that she will have to wait until she turns 18 in April. Her doctor Tony D'Souza is helping with the fundraising as well and he even started GoFundMe page for Caroline which has generated over $30,000.

Several BBQ's have been happening in Princeton as well and they will need to keep the fundraising going to reach their $120,000 goal. Szabo Brothers Car Care is still accepting bottles as well and as of this morning, cases were still piling in.

Caroline's Father Bruce Smith works at the JLM scrap Metal in Waterford at 1071 Concession 11. You can donate there as well by dropping off any scrap metal, and over the weekend someone donated an old van to the cause.

You can find more information online and you can donate at the GoFundMe page here. https://www.gofundme.com/caroline-smith