A central Alberta woman is thanking people across the province after seeing the overwhelming amount of support her story is receiving since Global News first shared it on Friday.
The single mother, who for the protection of her children we are calling Marie, suffers from severe multiple sclerosis which is preventing her from being able to take care of her two young daughters on her own.
It's been more than one week since she last saw the girls, who are staying with a friend while their mother desperately tries to find live-in help to care for them.
The problem, though, is that the government currently does not fund that service. So Child and Family Services has told the mother of two that adoption is her only option. She has three more weeks to find another solution.
Global viewers have started an online movement in hopes of helping Marie. They've set up a Facebook page that has attracted more than 1,000 members in just 48 hours, and a petition that has, so far, garnered over 500 signatures. They have also been lobbying MLAs and Premier Alison Redford on social media about the issue.
Brenda Edwards, who helps run the charity "I Dream a Dream" with her family, has come to the realization that that last course of action may be the best one in this situation. She and her husband initially wanted to help organize financial assistance.
"We were watching Global on...Friday night and it just touched both my husband and I. And my husband looked at me with tears in his eyes and he says 'this is the one for us to help,'" she says.
But the next day when the couple went to try and set up a trust account to fund a nanny for Marie, the two came across a roadblock. Since Marie collects disability pay from AISH, any money raised for her would be counted as income, and therefore, would reduce the amount she's given monthly by the government.
While there is the option of setting up a managed trust account in the name of Marie's children, Edwards says that, too, would be an administratively complicated, short-term solution to a long-term problem. And even though she's committed to helping Marie over the long-haul, Edwards believes the real help can only come from the government.
"We've set up the system so well so that it's not being abused...and (there's) no room for thought and feeling for anybody in a predicament like this," she says. "So we need to open conversation with the powers at be to include a case like this, to include funding for nanny care on a long-term basis."
Marie's friend, Christina, agrees.
"Ultimately we need to have something long-term done, changed about the way the government looks at funding for people with debilitating illnesses or accidents to be able to keep their families together."
Until that long-term solution is found, Marie tells Global News she's overwhelmed by the kindness of complete strangers.
"It helps so much to know that the compassion, the love of people is still there...now I have hope."
With files from Ross Neitz, Global News
© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2012.