Paralyzed Duluth Man Turns To Pay-It-Forward FB Page For Help

DULUTH - A Duluth family needs your help in a Christmas miracle by giving their paralyzed son a new way to communicate, and the conversation for assistance was all started through a local "Pay-It-Forward" Facebook page run by a few women who hope to make dreams come true. "It's heartbreaking,” said Linda Lockwood. “Every day you go in there and you look at him and you know what he used to be like to be stuck in your own body like he is." For the past seven years Lockwood has laughed, cried and cared for her son, Dereck."It's a very tough life he lives,” Lockwood said. “It's a very lonely life he lives." After an automobile accident, Lockwood and her husband committed their lives to taking care of their son at home so he wouldn’t have to live in a nursing home. A man who used to spend every spare moment outside is now bed ridden and forever paralyzed from the neck down. "Every time I've been in public, the mall or outside, I'm the only one in a wheelchair that I've ever seen," said Dereck, while motionless in the room he grew up in. In 2007 he suffered from a life-threatening car accident.  He explained the driver had a long night and fell asleep behind the wheel. They crashed into the Minnesota Power building on Superior Street, which caused Dereck to break his neck and back.Dereck is accompanied daily by his mother and his best friend who was the driver of the car in the accident, but lonely is how he describes his new way of life. Thanks to the internet, though, he's found support groups filled with people just like him."There's a lot of people like me throughout the world that you can connect online where you can't here," Dereck explained. But there's a problem; Dereck hasn't had his typical support system for a few weeks because his lifeline for communication, which is his computer, is outdated. “It overheats” Dereck said. “It pauses.” "It's kind of old, worn, it's kind of seen it's day,” echoed his mother who deals with her son’s frustration 24 hours a day. Dereck uses a program called Dragon Speech, which allows him to use it through voice commands. So, without a working system, he’s unable to communicate with his support groups and keep himself entertained. "I really need it,” he explained. “It's where I get my support, and otherwise I'd just be a ball of tears in here." Looking for help, his mother posted on the 'Free- Pay it Forward' Facebook page, and that's when page administrator and Superior resident Deanna Fetters couldn't resist stepping in to help."This is his gateway to the world. This is his way of communicating,” said Fetters. “We can get up and move and do what we want to do. Dereck can't." She's kicked off a campaign to give Dereck back the gift of communication."I have faith,” Fetters smiled. “I have so much faith, and I believe that we're going to have a happy ending to this story." An entirely new system would cost the Lockwood family thousands of dollars they say they don't have."It's costly. He's got to have a good one,” explained Linda Lockwood. “His voice is so raspy. It's got to be able to pick up his voice." For a man who has been through so much already, he’s hoping the best gift of all this holiday season is yet to come."It would be the most amazing remarkable thing that could ever happen," Linda Lockwood said. If you'd like to help Dereck and his family this holiday season, you can donate to the Hermantown Federal Credit Union under the Dereck and Linda Lockwood account.