By Andrew Daub
When Jeremy and Krystal VanderBrugghen’s daughter, Veya Hope, was denied medical treatment in Canada, they fought for her with everything they had. Amidst their fight, they discovered Team Iron Will, and we helped them pursue options across the border in the United States. We walked with them through one of the darkest seasons of their lives, reminding them at every turn that Veya’s life had immeasurable value.
Veya’s time on earth was short, but her parents’ words, written in her memory, say everything about why Team Iron Will exists: “She taught us more about courage, unconditional love, and the dignity of every human life than we could ever put into words.”
At Team Iron Will, we fight for individuals with Down syndrome from the first moment of creation, and we never stop.
A culture that discards what it cannot measure
In the United States, an estimated 60-90 percent of children suspected of having Down syndrome are killed before birth. In some European countries, that number approaches 100 percent. Iceland boasts that it has eliminated Down syndrome, but it’s not through any medical breakthrough; it’s through systematic prenatal elimination.
These are not abstractions. They are a cultural verdict rendered against an entire class of human beings: If you do not conform, if you cannot achieve, if you do not fit the mold, your life is conditional. Your worth must be earned.
This is the lie at the center of our culture of death, and it is the lie Team Iron Will was built to confront. We believe—without apology, without qualification—that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Imago Dei is not a sentiment. It is a truth about the nature of personhood with profound and inescapable moral consequences. A person’s worth—our son Will’s worth, Veya’s worth, the worth of every child with Down syndrome—is not contingent upon chromosomes, capacity, or cultural approval. It is given by God at the moment of creation and cannot be revoked. Not by a diagnosis. Not by death.
That conviction is the foundation of everything we do.
Team Iron Will’s beginnings
Will—our eighth child—came home in the middle of a pandemic, and in many ways we felt like first-time parents. My wife Cathy and I started advocating almost immediately, sharing his story on social media and trying to show that a life with Down syndrome is not a tragedy to be avoided but a gift to be received. The joy Will brings to us is, as Cathy has often said, like having a small piece of heaven in our home.
But advocacy alone wasn’t enough. We saw the gaps that families fall into: an inability to afford adaptive equipment, a lack of knowledge about early intervention resources, and medical personnel handing them fear instead of hope at the moment of diagnosis. When Will was gifted a gait trainer and therapy tools that we couldn’t afford, we saw firsthand what a difference this material support made, and we wanted to pay it forward.
We established Team Iron Will as a nonprofit in 2022. Since then, we have grown from an act of faith into a global movement, serving families in 47 states and 41 countries, reaching more than 125 million people online, awarding 177 therapy scholarships, and delivering 578 life-changing items. We have also conducted 26 educational webinars and launched the Down Syndrome Medical Advocacy Project, a nationwide network of physicians committed to expert, dignity-centered care for patients with Down syndrome.
To read the remainder of this article, visit the Celebrate Life Magazine site at clmagazine.org/topic/human-dignity/fighting-for-every-person-with-down-syndrome-from-creation-to-natural-death.
To read additional pro-life articles that will inspire and educate, visit clmagazine.org.