Local Family Seeking Help Buying Robot for Son With Rare Disease

Nine-year-old Thomas's family, from Weymouth, are seeking help paying for a robot that will help their child learn remotely.

Thomas has a rare metabolic condition and a Primary Immune deficiency that provides him no protection against everyday germs, according to his GoFundMe.com page.

So far in one month 37 people have donated a total of $2,265. The goal is $6,000.

From the page:

A simple cold for you can mean a life threatening infection for him. He does do treatments every week that help replace some of what his body does not make. He is out of school more then he is in. He can not attend school from January to usually May due to high risk of infection. He goes half days the other part of the year. This leads me to why we are doing a fundraiser. Technology today has come so far, Verizon has created a robot called VGo which goes to school for Thomas and sits in the classroom and allows Thomas to sit at home and be "in the classroom."

Clarification: Verizon did not develop the robot, and is rather a partner of VGO Communications, which is based in Nashua, NH.