A family friend of William “Bill” Donahue, a Glenside native known for his popular ‘The Publicans’ podcasts, has organized a GoFundMe on behalf of the Donahue family.
Mr. Donahue, a father of four, was diagnosed with Charcot Foot, a rare and disabling disorder resulting in nerve damage to the feet. He has been out of work and wheelchair-bound for some time.
The fundraiser aims to help the family fund a major surgery and adaptations to their lifestyles and their home until Mr. Donahue is back on his feet.
From the GoFundMe’s description:
The Family and Friends of Bill and Debbie Donahue are organizing to reciprocate all of the kindness and support the Donahue’s have always shown for others.
Bill has been diagnosed with the rare condition of Charcot Foot. The family has been adapting to many lifestyle changes as well as completing the ongoing list of home modifications necessary in allowing Bill to exclusively ambulate in a motorized wheelchair. Ramps and lifts for accessibility and mobility for the home and vehicle have been fitted.
Over the past seven months as the family has been making all of these adaptations to help Bill adjust to being non-ambulatory, Bill has also been medically and physically preparing for a potential life changing surgery to repair the structure of his foot. The recovery process will be extremely demanding, both physically and mentally. The recovery time frame is a minimum of 3-4 months. This is not ideal while serving as head of a household with four young children with packed schedules and needs to be met. When combined with the 7 months they have already endured, this puts the family at close to a year of financial and physical hardship.
The Donahue’s are always first to raise their hand, sign up, or volunteer to help others in any way they can. But like many families, they do not feel comfortable requesting assistance for themselves when in reality they could use the help right now.
Friends and Family,
All funds will go directly to aiding the Donahue family with medical expenses, unpaid time off for Deb to navigate appointments, and the loss of the primary income the family is enduring. Any help, along with continued prayers and well wishes is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support!
Love,
The Donahue and Rose Families
To donate to the GoFundMe, you can click here. $24,275 has been raised at the time of this writing.
Donahue told Glenside Local that the time off from work has allowed him an opportunity to create more podcasts, including his most recent edition titled “The Jenkintown historic pub crawl Jan 2024“.
For his “Glenside Historic Pub Tour” podcast you can click here, and for his “The Pike Hike- A Historic Bar Tour from Fox Chase to Huntingdon Valley PA” podcast you can click here.
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Photo: GoFundMe