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.
Our advocacy
St. John Paul II warned in Evangelium Vitae that the culture of death advances most effectively by isolating the vulnerable and ensuring that families facing hard diagnoses hear only statistics, fear, and the counsel of a world that has already decided the answer. Team Iron Will exists to break that isolation, from the first prenatal appointment to the last breath and every moment in between.
To that end, we advocate in four specific ways.
WE EDUCATE. Most families receive a Down syndrome diagnosis with little more than a pamphlet and a referral list. We counter that with expert-led webinars, educational resources, and the DS-MAP provider network so we can equip families, educators, and medical professionals with the tools they need to help their children thrive.
WE PROVIDE. We know what it is like to need a gait trainer but not be able to afford one, so we provide adaptive equipment, speech therapy scholarships, early-learning resources, and infantile spasms care packages directly to families experiencing financial strain.
WE INSPIRE. Through storytelling and principled cultural engagement, we push back against the indifference that limits our children. Our Champion Possibility initiative elevates the voices of individuals with Down syndrome as living witnesses to human dignity. They are persons to be loved, not problems to be solved.
WE CONNECT. Diagnosis day is often the loneliest day a family will ever experience. We walk alongside families during their most vulnerable moments, connecting them to specialists, support communities, and each other. And we do not walk away when things get harder. The VanderBrugghen family learned that. So have hundreds of others.
We know of at least two families who were considering abortion after a Down syndrome diagnosis and who chose life after encountering Will’s story. We know of dozens more who progressed from fear to joy. And we know of families like the VanderBrugghens, who fought for a life the medical system was prepared to abandon and who found in Team Iron Will people who understand that every human being deserves to be defended.
Jeremy and Krystal wrote these words in Veya’s memory: “Every life, no matter the diagnosis, is precious, deeply loved, and worthy of celebration.” That is not a sentiment. That is a mission statement.
The road ahead
Prenatal testing is expanding. The window between diagnosis and decision is shrinking. More families will need support, and they will need it faster than ever before. Team Iron Will works to meet parents in that moment.
We have expanded our therapy scholarship program to reach more families who cannot afford the care their children need. We are growing DS-MAP into a trusted, nationwide network of 150–200 dignity-centered providers so that families everywhere can access specialists who see their child as a person not as a problem. We are deepening our self-advocacy speaker bench of individuals with Down syndrome who will carry their own stories into schools, hospitals, and legislatures. And we are pursuing nondiscrimination and personhood protections that defend the right to life of every individual with Down syndrome—before and after birth.
The defense of the vulnerable is not a political position. It is a participation in God’s own creative and redemptive love. Every child who receives the therapy he needs, every parent who chooses life, and every family that walks through grief with their dignity intact are signs of that love made visible.
Will is now six years old. He is relentless, joyful, and stubborn in the best possible ways. Veya Hope is in the arms of God. And Team Iron Will is committed to advocating for all those who share a similar story because every person with Down syndrome, from the moment they are created until the moment they meet their Maker, is made in the image of God and is worth fighting for.
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