HELENA — VEO Guardians, a newly established non-profit organization dedicated to supporting families in need of timely medical care for children with very early onset inflammatory bowel disease, is helping a Helena boy.
Lindsay Volpe, the mother of a 13-year-old Helena boy says, “The biggest challenge is finding support which we found with VEO Guardians, but the other challenge is with our insurance plan.”
Gabe, Volpe's son was diagnosed with pan- ulcerative colitis and his treatment path was filled with complications leaving him exhausted, underweight, and socially isolated.
Gabe and his family faced additional battles with insurance providers over coverage for life-changing medications.
“I was surprised by how lonely this disease and diagnosis would be and finding the community support of other parents to speak to us with what they have gone through is a huge asset it was so shocking for me to actually connect with someone who has been in my shoes," Volpe says.
VEO Guardians supports families like Gabe's.
The organization was founded by Missoula resident Rachel Markovich to provide financial support to families facing insurance denials and delays. She created VEO Guardians because of her own experiences.
“I established this charity because my son was diagnosed with very early onset inflammatory bowel disease at 22 months old and we faced a bout of insurance denials and delays for medication," Markovich says.
IBD is a chronic disease that causes inflammation in the intestinal tract. The two main types of IBD are Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
About 80,000 children and young adults in the United States have IBD according to the Boston Children’s Hospital.
Volpe hopes that parents in similar situations are able to reach out and find support like her family did through VEO Guardians.
She says, "You don’t know what it is going to look like for anyone. If your child breaks their arm we will put a cast on it and we will fix it and we cannot fix what Gabe has we can only reach out to people.”
For more information on VEO Guardians visit their website here.
