New Chair

I wrote a little while ago about the sponsored walk our friend Michelle is doing and what we were planning on putting the money towards.

We've had a bit of a change of plan so I thought I'd write to update.

William in his therapy chair

We were considering putting the money raised towards a specialist double buggy or a specialist relaxing chair for William. We have now decided against both of these, at least for the time being. We had a second trial with the double buggy and decided it was too big and heavy to use frequently. We therefore felt it was a waste of money buying it. We do still anticipate needing a more informal home chair for William at some point in the future but he has been tolerating his therapy chair well recently and we have been shown a few things we can adjust on it when he is struggling more with his breathing.

Here you can see how William keeps his head locked to the left.

Since I last wrote we have been to back to wheelchair clinic with William to begin assessing him for a wheelchair. He is currently using a specialist buggy called a Kimba Spring but is on the verge of outgrowing it. It is also no longer offering him the postural support her needs. His head is not well positioned and he keep his head locked to one side and he needs a better harness. We are awaiting a follow up appointment to try out some different chairs. Once we receive the wheelchair the Kimba Spring buggy will have to be returned to wheelchair services. Wheelchairs tend to offer more postural support options which is why we switching from a buggy to a wheelchair.

We have a three wheel off road base that we bought ourselves to go with the Kimba Spring seat. This also turns into a bike trailer allowing William to join us on bike rides. Once the Kimba Spring buggy is returned we won't be able to continue using the three wheel base and bike trailer as we won't have a seat unit. Therefore we have decided to put the money towards another Kimba buggy.

We will get the next size up which means it should last William several more years. The Kimba Spring is no longer in production so we think we will need to get a new model Kimba Neo unless we can source a Kimba Spring. Having had a brief look at prices, weighing up all the postural accessories William will need, we predict needing about £2500 for the buggy. We will put any money Michelle raises towards this and fund the rest either ourselves or through grants from other charities.

Thank you so much to Michelle for agreeing to walk so far for our little William! And a big thank you to everyone that's already sponsored her. We are incredibly humbled and grateful. If you would like to sponsor her and help encourage her on you can at http://www.gofundme.com/69jr58.

Kimba Neo buggy

William using the three wheel base set up as a bike trailer with his current Kimba Spring seat