Brotherly Love: HelpHOPELive

By Ukee Washington

PHILADELPHIA (CBS)--A Radnor-based charity has helped thousands of people raise millions to ease the burden of a medical crisis. We show you how they're helping a family close to home.

The organization is called HelpHOPELive. It's helping the family of a young Philadelphia man raise the funds he'll need to return to his old life.

Greg Snyder,of Media, chats with his therapist at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital's outpatient center.  Greg, 26, was a third-year student at Jefferson Medical College who unexpectedly became a patient after a hiking accident with his dog named June.

"I remember kind of approaching some large rocks and tying my dog up around a tree, putting his leash around a tree, and that's kind of where I lost consciousness," said Greg. "I don't remember what happened."

He had fallen. His spinal cord was 95 percent severed. He is now a paraplegic, unlikely to walk again.

Medical school is on hold, and the medical bills are adding up. As a student, he didn't have a job history, so he didn't qualify for Social Security benefits.

"He had no income before, he still has no income. He still has no way-- he  doesn't even have a checkbook," said his mother, Deborah Wiegand Snyder.

They found HelpHOPELive, a non-profit that helps raise money for necessary medical expenses.

Executive director and CEO Lynne Coughlin Samson herself has a stepdaughter who was paralyzed in an accident.

"We bridge the gap between what insurance pays for and what they need to thrive, and we do that through grassroots fundraising," Samson said.

Greg is getting stronger. And he plans to return to Jefferson Medical College and finish his path to becoming a doctor.

"To be a patient has been a very enlightening experience than me and I hope it will make me a better doctor," he said.

To find out more about fundraising for Greg Snyder, click here.

To find out more about HelpHOPELive, go to www.HelpHOPELive.org