(GoFundMe)
Nearly four years after a devastating motorcycle accident left newlywed Matthew Davis on life support and in a coma, his wife, Danielle Josey, hasn’t lost hope for his recovery.
As of Tuesday, they’ve raised $18,395 of their $20,800 goal on fundraising site GoFundMe.com to cover the cost of a personal trainer or exercise specialist to work with him three hours a day and four days a week for a year.
“One year of intense training will change Matt’s life,” Danielle wrote on the fundraising page. “The more he does it and the longer he’s up, the faster and easier it will happen.”
In July 2011, Matt, then 22, was in a motorcycle accident, leaving him with several broken bones and a severe traumatic brain injury. The couple had been married for seven months and while doctors suggested removing him from life support because he would never wake up, his wife refused, according to their GoFundMe page.
“I wanted to give him more time to see if he improved. We didn’t really have a chance to start our life together, I wasn’t going to give up,” she wrote on the fundraising site.
The couple moved to her mother’s home in Savannah, Ga., in September of that year and Danielle, then 24, and her mother cared for him around the clock, bathing him, feeding him through a tube in his stomach and turning him every two hours to prevent bed sores, Danielle wrote on their blog, New Life in an Old World.
Three weeks after their move, Danielle turned to put Matt’s hat in his hand and told him to put it on. He responded, “I’m trying,” she wrote in her blog. He’d been in a coma for three months.
According to their blog, Matthew’s personality has stayed the same.
“He is sarcastic and witty, funny and charming, and still so very sweet,” Danielle wrote. “He shows all range of emotions.”
Talking to ABC News, Danielle said the moment that she knew her husband’s personality was still intact was once when they asked him what he wanted to eat.
“I kid you not, he says, ‘buffalo chicken wrap from Cheddar’s,’” she told ABC, explaining it was his favorite food. “We whipped around because we all knew what he said.”
Matt eventually went to a rehabilitation program and moved home in February 2012, according to their blog.
While three years of Matt’s memory has been erased, including remembering dating and marrying Danielle, he has gotten to know her all over again, ABC reported. The couple plays Scrabble and goes to yoga classes together, and he’s recently started driving a stick shift car, Danielle told the news channel.
Click to visit their GoFundMe page.
Click for more from ABC News and New Life in an Old World.
Stay up-to-date on the biggest health and wellness news with our weekly recap.