CHARLOTTE — After suffering a traumatic brain injury in an accident, one Charlotte resident has found healing in helping other families through trying times.
In 2024, Eleanor Shell was hit by a car while pushing her then 7-month-old daughter in a stroller. She says that day changed everything.
“Traumatic brain injuries affect every part of your body and your soul,” she told Channel 9’s Elsa Gillis. “There were a lot of struggles, both personally, as a family, financially, and I for the first time in my life really had a hard time seeing hope in the future.”
But finding that hope has led Shell to others. A former pastor, with a background in nonprofit work, Shell has since launched her own nonprofit that serves families like hers. It’s called Borrowed Hope and helps people in what she calls “the long middle.”
Shell listed examples: “Everything from the sudden death of one of the parents, to abandonment of one of the parents, to cancer, to a child born with a long NICU stay,” she said.
The goal is to provide respite experiences for families, like a movie date or a trip for ice cream, along with gas cards and snacks.
“When you have these types of long-term struggles, you lose that as a family,” she said.
It’s a feeling she knows all too well, especially after last Christmas when she took her oldest child to the Polar Express for the last time. Though money was tight, she bought tickets and is glad she did.
“I have a picture of my 8-year-old with this big smile and holding the silver bell, and I’ll never forget it,” Shell said.
She hopes to provide similar hopes of joy for others as she continues her own healing.
“There are days that it’s still really hard,” Shell said. “There are simple things I cannot do still, but I keep trying and my hope is that my children will see that.”
To learn more about Shell’s nonprofit or nominate a family to be a recipient of Borrowed Hope’s services, visit their website here.
If you’d like to support Shell’s healing journey, she and her family started a fundraising campaign to help pay for medical expenses.