Paying it forward: Mon Valley woman seeks van to be independent, help disability community
Photos: Courtesy of Hannah Sherlock
Hannah Sherlock of Monongahela sits behind the wheel of her van, Pequod, which she operated with hand controls. Sherlock, who has muscular dystrophy, drove the van for 12 years before it reached the end of its life.
Courtesy of Hannah Sherlock
Hannah Sherlock, left, with her husband, Jared
Courtesy of Hannah Sherlock
Hannah Sherlock’s corgi-German Shepherd mix, Pumpkin
A Monongahela woman with muscular dystrophy who has dedicated a large part of her life to disability advocacy is now in need of a helping hand of her own.
Hannah Sherlock, 31, needs a new wheelchair-accessible van after the 12-year-old vehicle she’d driven since she was a college sophomore broke down the day after Christmas.
The computer system that allowed her to drive the van with hand controls failed, leaving her and her husband, Jared, stranded.
Since then, Sherlock, who had driven “Pequod” (so-named by Sherlock after the ill-fated ship in “Moby Dick”) through college and graduate school, and to and from her teaching position at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, has been mostly stuck at home, with no van.
Friends have started an online fundraiser with the goal of raising $80,000 for a new van equipped with the modifications Sherlock and her wheelchair require.
A model with the computer system and hand controls that would enable Sherlock to drive it – like Pequod – would cost another $35,000, so she and Jared have settled on the van that only he can drive.
Actor Jon Bernthal (of “The Walking Dead” fame), whose Real Ones Podcast newsletter Sherlock writes for, has offered to match donations.
So far, the Go Fund Me has raised $4,558.
“I lived an independent life and it’s gone all of a sudden,” said Sherlock. “But now I’m in a difficult position because I’m married and my husband is an able-bodied person, and I have a degree, and those things mark me as not needing assistance. Paratransit can take me to medical appointments, but nothing else is considered a necessity. I knew when I got the van that eventually there was an expiration date on it, and it lasted even longer than we expected, but those vans are absurdly expensive. You build your whole life around depending on it, and then that’s it.”
Sherlock is hoping her situation will bring awareness to the challenges those who use wheelchairs face and result in improved accessibility to public transportation.
And when she gets a new van, Sherlock wants to pay it forward.
She plans to use the van as a community resource, making it available for anyone in need of accessible transportation.
“We want people in the community to know this van exists, so in an emergency or a non-emergency situation we will be there to help. It will be an informal disability-friendly ride-share service, at no cost,” said Sherlock. “The funding for the van has been a community effort, so the van’s use should be, too.”
Sherlock acknowledged Washington County Transportation Authority’s Freedom Transit, which provides ADA Complementary Paratransit Services.
But for a woman who navigated the world however she pleased, the paratransit service has limitations, such as ride-sharing, limited hours of operation, and no service on Sundays.
“As a government-funded service, we can only do so much, but we do try to provide a service that people can utilize and maintain their independence with. There are restrictions, though. For example, we operate from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., so if you wanted to go out later in the evening, that’s a service we don’t offer,” said Sheila Gombita, executive director of Freedom Transit. “For individuals who have their autonomous ability to drive their own vehicles, it would be limiting.”
Sherlock has met with Monongahela City Council and other community leaders to discuss her volunteer “taxi service” and sits on a committee that recently received a WalksWork grant that promotes the creation, enhancement, and use of activity-friendly routes connecting everyday destinations throughout the commonwealth.
Since Sherlock was diagnosed with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy at age 9, she has spent her life focusing on what she can do instead of what she can’t do.
Sherlock, Jared and Pumpkin, their corgi-German shepherd mix, moved to Monongahela in August 2022.
She grew up poor, in the Southern Appalachians of West Virginia, the daughter of a single mom who moved them to Myrtle Beach, S.C., when she was 14.
“But I was raised with lots and lots of love,” said Sherlock.
A stellar student who excelled in the classroom (21 uninterrupted years of A’s, she joked) Sherlock began showing signs of muscular dystrophy at 5 years old.
“Part of my childhood was being in and out of the hospital and always having medical concerns, but I found some steadiness in school and I got super invested in it and was really good at it and I became hyper-focused on it,” said Sherlock.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in literature at Coastal Carolina University, and earned her masters degree and doctorate degree from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, where she taught until moving to Southwestern Pennsylvania.
She writes a blog, Head Over Wheels, where she shares her experiences as a woman with a disability and advocates for those living with a disability.
Sherlock’s friends said the new van will give her back her independence and let her continue advocating for others – and allow them to stop worrying about her so much.
“This is something she really needs in order to live her life in any kind of way you’d want anyone you love to live their life,” said Maggie Wright of Seattle, Wash., who helped organize the fundraiser. “I think getting her this van is as much a mobility device as her wheelchair is.”
On the Go Fund Me page, Wright wrote, “Hannah has dedicated a huge part of her life to disability advocacy. Her heart is enormous and through knowing her we have all come to see how much of her desire to help others forms her everyday life. Much of our time together is spent discussing ways to open eyes to a new way of seeing the world, the realities of living with a disability, and how the system has failed others less fortunate than herself.”
Sherlock is reluctant to rely on the generosity of others, but is moved by the kindness of the friends who launched the fundraiser and the generosity of Bernthal for matching it.
“This has been enlightening in a lot of ways and super frustrating in other ways. I wish I didn’t need help. I’ve worked to overcome my disability in as many ways as I could. There is an idea that a disability shouldn’t be limiting, and it shouldn’t be. But a lot of people with a disability won’t be able to overcome that disability, and that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be able to lead a fulfilling life,” said Sherlock.
“I had the chance to be least disabled by going to college and going out on my own. That’s great, but this has been eye-opening in the sense that there is a much more common disabled experience, which is not leaving a 10-block radius except going to a doctor’s appointment. That’s surviving, but not really living. I want to help change that.”
To donate to New Wheels for Hannah, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-wheels-for-hannah.