CRANBERRY TWP — A township family wants to help people living with spinal cord injuries after seeing firsthand the challenges these patients face.

Eric and Amy Brown started Rise Again, a nonprofit organization, in 2014.

Rise Again’s purpose is to raise money and give grants to people and families in Western Pennsylvania living with spinal cord injuries to help them travel for progressive therapy and treatment.

The Browns also plan to assist patients with the cost of alternative and holistic treatments and hope to encourage research and increase knowledge about spinal cord injuries, according to the organization’s website.

“We want to help families out, bring knowledge back to Pittsburgh and have more people that understand that recovery is possible,” said Amy Brown, Rise Again’s president.

The Browns believe Rise Again is the first and only group in the region working to support spinal injury patients.

Rise Again will have its second annual Purse Bash fundraiser Saturday at St. Ferdinand Roman Catholic Church, 2535 Rochester Road. The event raised $8,000 last year, and the Browns hope to raise at least that amount again, Amy Brown said.

In 2009, when their son Alex was 4 years old, he complained of neck pain one day, which his parents thought was from playing. The following morning he was unable to stand up, and they took him to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Alex was eventually diagnosed with spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma, a rare and puzzling condition. He required surgery and spent a total of 202 days in the hospital before he was able to return home. Then he needed a wheelchair, ventilator and feeding tube.

For the past several years, Alex has spent about three months of each year in Kentucky to receive treatment at the University of Louisville Kosair Charities Center for Pediatric NeuroRecovery. The doctors there have innovative programs that attract spinal injury patients from around the world.

“He continues to make gains. He made tremendous progress last summer,” Amy Brown said.

Because some of the treatments are considered alternative or holistic, they are not covered by insurance. There are also the costs for traveling and staying in Kentucky, though the family is able to stay at the Ronald McDonald House.

When Alex was first being treated, doctors struggled to properly diagnose him because they had limited background in spinal injuries, Amy said.

“We were kind of told there was a chance Alex could get better, but they didn’t know how that could happen,” she said.

Now a fourth-grade student at St. Alphonsus Catholic School, 201 Church Road, Wexford, Alex is able to play Miracle League baseball and sled hockey, and he participates in track and field events in a special wheelchair. He no longer needs the feeding tube or ventilator.

As his nerves have recovered, his overall health has improved, allowing him to have a much better quality of life.

“He’s very active. He always wants to play,” Amy Brown said.

Erin Nock, physical therapist at Children’s Hospital, is Rise Again’s secretary and has had Alex as a patient for several years.

Alex sees her three times a week for 90-minute treatment sessions that include walking on a treadmill while wearing a special harness.

Alex has continued to make progress in his recovery and has not experienced any plateaus or setbacks in the time Nock has known him.

She said she got involved with the organization to help other children like Alex.

“I think this organization gives families and therapists hope for this type of treatment for their children. It allows families to travel to alternative treatments, as well as allow therapists to become trained in spinal cord injury treatments that they can then apply to patients here in Western Pennsylvania,” Nock said.

In addition to supporting Alex, the foundation has given a grant to the family of a young girl from DuBois who was injured in a car accident. It has talked with another family that plans to apply for a grant to receive treatment in Louisville.

Rise Again has been supporting doctors at Children’s Hospital by paying for them to receive NeuroRecovery Network Training, a program offered by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

For information on Rise Again or the Purse Bash event, visit http://www.riseagainsci.org.