Dawn Collins may be in her 70s but she still has a lot of fight in her.
Collins has been fighting an uphill battle against the federal government for more than a decade but she isn’t giving up. Collins believes her husband’s death is linked to his time in the military and exposure to toxic chemicals on navy ships in the 1960s.
“I believe that the chemicals he was exposed to on the ships caused his condition and I’ll go to my grave believing that,” Collins said.
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Wayne Collins passed away in 2012, several years after developing multiple system atrophy — a rare, degenerative, neurological disorder that affects the body’s involuntary functions.
“My husband couldn’t brush his teeth, comb his hair, nothing at the end,” Collins said.
She’s been trying to get compensation for Wayne for years, with no success.
“I wasn’t getting anywhere with them, just denial, denial, denial,” she told Global News. “In some of the documents I have, they said that Wayne wasn’t exposed to chemicals but he was.”
WATCH: Dawn Collins continues to fight her own government for compensation following her husband’s death. Natasha Pace reports.
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Collins says she recently took it upon herself to find what she says is new evidence in her case. In total, she has 250 new pages of evidence she plans to present.
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“It’s all about the chemicals, different chemicals that were used on the ships, the naval ships, and carbon tetrachloride is one of them,” she said.
“They tried to say that it wasn’t but every man that served in the services said they used it as a degreaser and a cleaner and washed their hands in it and that was one of the chemicals that’s highly toxic.”
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Collins is currently in the process of appealing her case and is feeling hopeful that the new evidence she found may help her case.
It’s good news for Collins, who says she’s been living a nightmare.
“Wayne and I had spent a lot of money going to Germany for treatments and that, and we lost a lot of money and I’m struggling now to survive.”
“I’m telling you, I’ve been suffering and that you know. I sit in this apartment and look at four walls because I can’t afford even to take a trip to Chester. I can’t afford to buy clothes. I’m in hard shape. If Wayne was still there, I wouldn’t be here in this position.”
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Veterans Affairs says they cannot comment on a specific case but that any veteran or family member who is dissatisfied with a decision has recourse options.
While Collins waits to hear what happens next in her ongoing battle with the feds, she has this advice for other people who are in the same situation as her.
“Don’t give up. That’s my advice,” she said.
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