Bob Shea understands what it means to have a second chance at life.

Twenty years ago, he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a neurological disease that left him paralyzed. He couldn’t breathe without a ventilator. He couldn’t speak. To sleep at night, nurses taped his eyelids close because he couldn’t blink.

Life was bleak.

But Bob persevered. Two years later, he’d regained most of his everyday function. During that recovery process, his good friend Ed Kane was diagnosed with ALS. Ed was prescribed a complex wheelchair to help him get around on his own. There was just one problem. Ed’s insurance allocated up to $2,500 for a wheelchair. The one he was prescribed cost $30,000.

“We looked around, assuming there had to be some agency or organization that could step in and help with the cost, and we found nothing,” Bob said. In the City of Chicago, where there are more than 500,000 people deemed disabled in some form, we found one little lending locker in the basement of a church.”

Bob and Ed had no clinical background. They had no experience in the nonprofit world. But at that moment, they decided they had to do something.

And that’s how Devices 4 The Disabled (D4D) was born.

Providing medical equipment at no cost

D4D refurbishes used medical equipment — from wheelchairs and canes to medical lifts and hospital beds — that otherwise would end up in landfills. The nonprofit organization then provides the equipment for free to people without insurance, who are underinsured, or who lack the finances to purchase the equipment they desperately need.

When Bob and Ed founded D4D in 2015, they were two guys with a storage locker. Their office was the local Starbucks. Today, the organization has an executive director, a director of clinical services and a director of operations. D4D has its own center on the Southwest Side of Chicago, a 6,000-square foot warehouse to store donated equipment, and a secondary location in Durango, Mexico.

How the company expanded speaks to the power of storytelling.

In 2016, CBS Chicago reporter Brad Edwards sat in Ed’s living room for a piece about D4D and the two founders. The resulting story not only introduced the organization to people across Chicago, but it went on to win an Emmy award, besting two different stories about the Pope.

“Everybody likes the story of the little guy that wins,” Bob said. “That story gave us momentum.”

Ed passed away in 2016, but the organization’s momentum continued to grow. D4D received multiple community grants, and in 2020 it won the Chicago Bears Community All-Pros initiative and a $101,000 grant to help the organization expand.

Bob said D4D received each of its grants because of the organization’s success stories. He’s always been inspired by Maya Angelou’s quote about people remembering how you made them feel, and he makes it a point to demonstrate the emotional impact of D4D whenever possible.

As more people learned about D4D, it began to receive more medical equipment. With more equipment, D4D could help more people.

And change more lives.

Giving people their lives back

Tania’s life was changed thanks to D4D. The young girl was an innocent bystander who was shot three times. Three weeks later, her mother delivered a baby girl. The family did not have insurance, and the gunshots made Tania a quadriplegic on a ventilator.

Tania was prescribed a complex wheelchair that, if new, would cost $40,000.

D4D gave her one for free.

Today, Tania is taking college courses. She hopes to work for the Department of Children and Family Services so she can help other children who experienced adversity like she did.

Bob’s dream is for D4D to become a national nonprofit. When he and Ed started, all they had was their story. Today, the organization has hundreds of stories to tell.

Stories that show the organization’s mission.

Stories that show the organization’s potential.

Stories that show the organization’s impact.

“We don’t want a lack of equipment to get in the way of people living their lives,” Bob said. “At Devices 4 The Disabled, we give people their lives back.”

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3 storytelling tips for you

1) Remember both sides of the brain

The left side of your brain focuses on facts and figures, while the right manages feelings and emotions. Bob believes facts and figures are important to a story (like the cost of a complex wheelchair), but to have lasting impact, make sure your story includes an emotional component.

2) Focus on your impact

It’s easy to make a story about yourself and what you do. When D4D started, that was the only story Bob had. The key to the organization’s success and growth came once it could focus less on what it did and more on the impact of its services.

3) Don’t wait for others

Bob assumed an organization already existed in Chicago to help people who couldn’t afford expensive medical equipment. When he found none, he and Ed Kane decided to create their own. Don’t wait for someone else to tell your story. It’s time to share it with the world.