A Secret Santa in Eastern Idaho has made an enormous difference for a woman who has Muscular Dystrophy and her husband by purchasing the couple a new wheelchair-accessible van.

“I was born with Muscular Dystrophy, so I have been in a wheelchair – I got my first one when I was about three or four, and I’ve been in a wheelchair the whole time,” Melissa, a social worker, told Nate Eaten of EastIdahoNews. 

When Melissa was an elementary school student, a doctor informed her that she would not live past 15 and told her family to love her and make the best of their remaining time together. Melissa defied the odds and recently celebrated her 40th birthday.

She graduated college in 2005 and works as a social worker.

“I love the people, I love the residents, I love the families, I just love to be part of it,” she says of her job. 

Scott drives Melissa to work every day using their wheelchair-accessible, but the vehicle is worn. Scott told EastIdahoNews:

It’s got 250,000 miles on it, and we bought it just used, and its been a great van, and just this last year its been kind of showing us its time… we do owe so much on it, and we can’t borrow anything on it. We even looked to trade it in. They didn’t want it.

EastIdahoNews surprised Melissa and Scott at the hospital where she works in Montpelier and provided them with multiple Christmas gifts from the Secret Santa. The first was a $10,000 check.

“Oh my gosh, we can pay the van off,” a choked-up Scott said upon opening the present. “We’ve been paying eight years on it, and we got two years left.”

“We looked at it and we were looking at getting a new van, we’re going ‘it’s like buying two vans by the time we get it converted,'” Scott said. 

The couple was handed a second present. Once they opened the gift to find a key to a brand new wheelchair-accessible van,  Melissa and Scott both let out gasps.

“No way. No way,” Scott said as he began to cry. 

“I’m speechless,” a tearful Melissa said. 

The news team brought the couple outside to check out their new ride. 

“I love it; it’s perfect,” Melissa said as she entered into the van. 

“That’s the same version that we’ve had that’s been flawless for years,” Scott told Nate. 

Scott fought through tears as he thanked the kindhearted Secret Santa: 

I don’t know what to say. Thank you so much for – I don’t know how you choose people to help when there are so many people that need it, but you couldn’t have picked a better person than Melissa. You couldn’t have. She’s definitely going to pay it forward. She’s the type that she’s not going to let it stop here. She’ll pay it forward somehow, but thank you very much.

Melissa expressed her gratitude for the gesture. 

“It’s just so unexpected. Thank you so much; it’s a lifesaver for us,” Melissa said. “We haven’t known what we were going to do because the van, we owe more than what it’s worth. This definitely saves a lot.”