Community rallies to help recovering mother and family from Lower Sackville

LOWER SACKVILLE, N.S. – Friends of a woman from Lower Sackville have set up online fundraisers to help support her family after she suffered serious medical troubles.

Less than a week after giving birth to her second child, 34-year-old Jenni Burke suffered a stroke and had to be rushed to hospital, where she was put into an induced coma.

“There was a lot of worry, for a solid three or four weeks, we didn’t really know one way or another what was going to happen, it was hard,” said Anne Marie West, who has known Jenni for 13 years.

West says Jenni underwent two brain surgeries and woke up with paralysis on her left side.

After four months of hard work and physiotherapy, West says Jenni is now starting to walk again.

“She uses a cane, and she walks very slow, literally one step at a time, but she’s doing very good,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "She uses a cane, and she walks very slow, literally one step at a time, but she's doing very good," she said.

On Saturday, Jenni’s friends launched both an online auction on Facebook called “Online Benefit Auction for the Burke Family,” and a GoFundMe campaign called “Believing in the Burkes.”

The campaign began with a $10,000 goal and surpassed it after only 12 hours. More than 48 hours later, funds had more than doubled.

“Their reaction, much like ours, is just an overwhelming appreciation of what the community has come together to do,” said Jessica Ramsay.

Ramsay and Suzanne Wilson have both known Jenni for more than 20 years.

They say family and friends were helping the family by doing little things, like making meals, but they knew more needed to be done.

“Raising money seemed like the best thing to do. They’ve gone from two incomes to barely one,” said Ramsay.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Raising money seemed like the best thing to do. They've gone from two incomes to barely one," said Ramsay.

According to Ramsay, Jenni’s husband Tony left his job to care for their two children and help her through her recovery.

The group of friends say they’re grateful for all the donations but also for the attention the Burke family’s struggle is getting.

“It’s really brought the whole community together for Tony and Jenni,” said Wilson. “Even just sharing it is helping. It’s just spreading their story to show the love and support we all have for them.”