Welcome Home Angel helps local teenager cope with illness

Just in time for Christmas: A Wilmington teenager and her family are celebrating an important gift. Courtney Causey has a new bedroom, thanks to the Welcome Home Angel organization.

Courtney Causey’s room has just about everything a thirteen year old girl could want; a purple telephone, a computer, and a flat screen TV. Unique to Courtney’s room are all the different kinds of horses you will find; from the stuffed variety, to her clock. She has been riding since about six years old.

“I like horses, so I wanted to have my horse pictures hung,” said Courtney.

But Courtney can’t spend much time in the barn anymore because of a compromised immune system. In July, she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain stem tumor.

To help her cope with the illness, the Welcome Home Angel program, stepped in. It is a local non-profit organization that remodels chronically ill children’s bedrooms.

“With kids who have been diagnosed with an illness that’s chronic they spend a lot of times in their rooms, and to make it as bright and cheery helps with recovery because your mental state has a lot to do with your physical state,” said Melissa Wilson from Welcome Home Angel.

A local designer worked with Courtney, who already had her ideas on paper, to design her new room. Courtney’s mom, Gail Causey said, “Its really been something really good for her. She’s really been excited about it and we have too, so its really helped her spirits a lot so we really appreciate them coming out and doing all that.”

Courtney is battling her tumor with chemo, but sleeping in her new bedroom, makes the fight a little easier.

Welcome Home Angel also offers guidance to family members of chronically ill children.

In addition to Courtney’s room, the organization will paint her sister’s room too.