Sask. dad says fundraiser for sick daughter helps beyond 'wildest dreams'

SASKATOON -

After being diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis this spring, a 14-year-old Melfort girl needs a liver transplant.

“This is one of the worst things that I’ve been through, because it’s so stressful on me and my family and everybody around me,” said Jayda Nagy.

High fevers led doctors to test Nagy three times for COVID-19. After tests were negative, blood tests showed that there was something wrong with her liver.

Jayda was rushed by air ambulance on May 20 to the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital where she spent 12 days.

Doctors recommended that Jayda see specialists in Edmonton for further tests in preparation for an organ transplant.

“I told her I’d trade places with her in a second,” said Jayda’s dad, Kevin Nagy.

Kevin Nagy works for the City of Melfort and has been on the Melfort Volunteer Fire Department for 14 years.

The captain of the department, Randy Martin, started a GoFundMe for the Nagy family to help pay for extra medical expenses and travel costs associated with Jayda’s treatment.

In one week, the goal of $20,000 was met and as of June 28 it was over $22,000.

“I wouldn’t have dreamt it went to the max in one week. Not even in my wildest dreams did I think that would happen that quick,” said Kevin Nagy.

Nagy says he was overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers. He says there are many individual donations and one from a person as far away as Whitehorse.

He says large donations from people he never even met in the community of Cumberland House touched his heart.

He says they took it upon themselves to host fundraisers on their local radio station and at a Cumberland House school, resulting in $3,000 in donations being collected in the community.

“It will relieve a lot of stress because I’m going to be off work for probably six to eight weeks with no income. And there’s still bills to pay and we gotta get to and from places,” said Nagy.

Jayda Nagy says her family has helped her stay positive but her dad has been her biggest “superhero.”

Jayda and one of her parents will be making their first trip to Edmonton July 4 for medical assessment.

The family expects to make multiple trips from Melfort to Edmonton for medical treatment in the coming months.