BRINSTON – A silent auction has been arranged to raise funds for two local women who suffered burns at a campfire last month in Brinston. A fun night out around a campfire ended in severe burns for the two young ladies.
At one point in the evening the bonfire exploded outward and the girls who were standing right next to the fire were engulfed in flames. The two girls are Cassendra Young and Jessica Goodenough.
A Facebook post by one of their friends Barbi Dowell described what happened next.
She wrote,” As the flames were extinguished from their flesh, hair, clothing it was realized that an ambulance would not be able to get to them. Cassandra (one of the victims) got all the other victims and herself into her truck and drove them to the nearest hospital (Winchester District Memorial Hospital).
Her body remained in shock masking her from the pain long enough to get everyone to the hospital.
There Jessica Goodenough was treated for second degree burns to her face, hand, arm and was discharged in the morning. Cassandra was treated for third degree burns on her face, scalp, and was discharged later that day.
The girls travel to and from Ottawa to see a cosmetic surgeon who specializes in trauma burn victims at least once per week. They will be seeing this specialist at least once per week for the foreseeable future.
As of today there aren’t any operations scheduled and the specialist will be continuing to monitor the girls as to when or if surgeries are required.
Physiotherapy will not be happening until they have healed further and the swelling has subsided.
The girls will need support and therapy to process the trauma they have and will be enduring.
PTSD, anxiety, stress, pain, and depression are all issues we do not want these girls to have to face.
We are hoping by getting the message out there, that one reward will be getting a strong support network set up for the girls for the hard years ahead.
Both girls are off of work and there is no way to guess when they will be able to go back to work. They both have family members taking time off of work to take them to appointments, and to help with the round the clock care they both require due to their injuries.
Cassandra Young is an alumni of North Dundas District High School and has been working at Parmalat in Winchester up until this incident.
She has lived all her life in Chesterville. Her and her family are always out in support of our communities.
Her parents both have small businesses in Chesterville and Winchester.
Jessica Goodenough is an alumni of Seaway District High School and Algonquin College for Office Administration. She was working at Tippen Richardson in Ottawa in their head office. Jess grew up in Williamsburg and Morrisburg.
She is currently living in Osgoode with her dad to be closer to her numerous appointments.
Travel, parking, meals, medication, bandages, loss of income, etc are all expenses that are piling up and becoming daunting for the girls and their families.
At a time such as this, expenses like this should be the last thing they should have to worry about.
Hopefully you will be willing to donate an item to the silent auction to raise funds to help these beautiful souls.
We are also hoping that getting the word out will raise awareness so that an incident such as this never happens to any other person or family.
We would like to thank you on behalf of Cassandra Young, Jessica Goodenough and their families.
Janet MacLean Smith, Andia Dejong, and Barbi Ménard are the organizers for the silent auction. They can be reached at janetsmith1078@gmail.com, 613-880-0352 or Johndinfarms@storm.ca, 613-223-9651 and barbi020273@gmail.com, 613-294-4424.
