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!