Archive for the ‘Appeals’ Category

This week has been a bit of a nightmare for me.

I’ve always said that my strong arms are so very important . Throughout forty years of disability I have been very independent, mainly due to the wheelchair and the car.

I’ve always said that I need my arms more than most. However, on Saturday I felt pain as I used my right hand to brake using my hand controls.

During the night and on Sunday the pain got worse and in the end I phoned NHS DIRECT for advice and was told to go to A&E for a check up.

By this time the pain was extreme and I managed to survive when my friend who gave me a lift in his car had to drag me into the passenger seat!

An X-Ray showed I had a fracture in the elbow and suddenly all my plans had changed.

Now I have to rest the arm for six weeks and the slightest pressure on my hand causes pain to shoot up the arm.

I couldn’t get into bed or go to the toilet, cook or wash up and just managed to drag myself around the flat in my wheelchair.

When we are fit and well we take for granted normal bodily movements.

Something as simple as a minor fracture can make us aware of how important health is.

Social Services came and arranged for me to stay in a nursing home, so once again I am aware of the wonderful services of the NHS. In most countries I would be left to suffer. I’ll take a pile of self help personal development books to study so as to use the time productively.

How often do we get a few weeks when we can relax and study? Not often! Every situation is different yet in most cases we can find something beneficial if our attitude is right. Of course it’s not where I would CHOOSE to be at this time but this is my reality for the time being. I hope to learn from the experience and the situation and come home more focused and more determined than ever to reach my goals.

One thing I have learned to appreciate is the few friends that have made themselves available to help in the simple tasks that I have found impossible. Living with no legs and one arm is hard but there are many who have no legs AND no arms yet live extraordinary lives and are an inspiration to all around them.

One man, I think his you tube ID is FLIPPER, has no arms or legs yet travels the world speaking to young people in schools. What an extraordinary and talented man he is.

For millions, all they need is a wheelchair so as to fulfil their potential. Please donate so as to allow them the opportunity to meet their challenges.

Matthew wants to play hide and seek with his 5-year-old brother, Noah. He wants to see the birds he hears in the trees and the firetrucks that zoom past his house with their sirens on. But he has to wait for someone to carry him to the door to look outside and by then it’s too late. The birds and firetrucks won’t wait.

Matthew Davidopoulos of Lowell (USA) is a typical toddler in so many ways. He’s smart and talkative and curious and bursting to do all that he can. He loves to color and paint and play with his iPad and watch movies (“Cars’’ is his favorite). He has dark blond hair and perfect baby teeth and bright blue eyes. It’s having spinal muscular atrophy that separates him from most kids his age. It’s being unable to sit or stand or walk or dress himself or even stamp his foot when he gets angry. He was diagnosed with SMA when he was 8 months old, a week before Christmas. Doctors told his parents, Courtney and Paul, not only that Matthew had a degenerative muscle disease but that he would not live to be 2. They were given a Do Not Resuscitate form to fill out. Matthew is 2 ½ now, and his life is not easy, it’s HIS life. Every night his parents hook him up to a feeding tube to provide the nutrients he needs but cannot get by eating normally.

Every morning they use a machine to clear congestion in his chest that accumulates overnight. Then they bathe and dress him and get him ready for the day. They carry him downstairs, where he has to wear a special vest for about 20 minutes to further loosen congestion. Then he is strapped into a “stander’’ for two to three hours of weight-bearing pressure on his legs. Three times a week, he has physical therapy, once a week he has playtherapy and aquatherapy, and once a week he goes to a playgroup with typical kids. All this, and he is a happy child.

What Matthew needs now to progress and to participate in life, to mingle with friends, to play hide and seek with his brother, to be able to move around a room – is a POWER WHEELCHAIR. But MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program for the poor and disabled, has twice denied the family’s request for a power chair. The rejections baffle the family and all of Matthew’s caregivers, not only because “Matthew’s condition will not change but he will always need a power chair’’ his mother explains. “But also because our primary insurance agreed to pay 90% of the $23,000 cost’’

The Davidopouloses need MassHealth to sign on not only because they don’t have the 10 percent, but also because the agency would be the insurer responsible for repairs. Among the letters the family submitted to MassHealth was documentation stating that Matthew had driven a power chair around the hallways of a rehab hospital and around other patients and people. To deprive young Mathew of the chance to enjoy life as best he can given his circumstances seems too cruel to even think about. Imagine holding this young boy in your arms and giving him a hug, then slip a $5 or $10 in his mothers hand towards his wheelchair.

Frankly it only needs a few generous folk with compassion to meet this need. WILL YOU BE ONE OF THEM? MAKE A DONATION today and give something, even if only $1. The doctors thought predicted Mathew would be dead six months ago! We’ve all heard stories like that before and gone on to see the patients defy the odds and live to experience a fulfilling life for years to come. To hear Mathew’s story brings tears to my eyes and I sincerely hope you will not let this appeal pass you by. I know times are tough but PLEASE, for mathews sake, take action now and donate whatever you can. God bless you!

My name is Julius Adzraku.

I am a native of Dzolo-Gborgame in Volta-Region(GHANA). I was told by my mother that I started walking at the age of two years but one night I cried from sleep and from that night I became cripple.

I lost all my parents. I completed Polytechnic and qualify as Higher National Diploma (H.N.D.) holder in ACCOUNTANCY.

Due to the discrimination in Africa about people with disability I wrote application to places and I have attended all the interviews but I was not given the chance.I am also ordained pastor where I was given GHC50.00 as monthly salary in the church that I work.

I am married with three sons and the money given to me cannot cater for us left alone save some in order to buy the machine myself. My plan and prayer is that one day GOD would come to my aid where somebody would help me to establish my own enterprise where l would be writing account for people and taking stock for market women.

So please help me to build this machine to make me stable in order to make my dream come true.

If you are able to help us to help Julius then make a donation today.