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GENEROUS DONATIONS: Community raise £8,000 for Croxley Green residents motorised wheelchair

 Published on: 4th January 2022   |   By: Lizzie Ellis   |   Category: Uncategorized

A family from Croxley Green say they are ‘overwhelmed’ with the generosity of the community, who raised more than £6,000 in just 24 hours to help purchase a new wheelchair for 16-year-old Declan.

The Rhodes family, who live in the village, set up a fundraiser at the start of 2022 to help purchase a motorised wheelchair for Declan, who was born with quadriplegic cerebral palsy and has used a self-propelling wheelchair most of his life.

Declan’s siblings Helena and Dominic Rhodes set up a GoFundMe page to help fund a £13,000 life-changing wheelchair for their younger brother, to improve his quality of life and give him more freedom.

Helena told CroxleyNews: “Declan was turned down by the NHS because he didn’t fit their criteria due to his learning disability. However, his physio is very passionate about his independence as well as his physical wellbeing. 

“In her opinion, propelling a manual wheelchair is creating further problems with his posture and she feels that this will create problems where there aren’t at the moment.”

Declan trialled a motorised wheelchair with his physio, which gave him more independence to travel over different surfaces easily and choose where he wanted to go. However, the family could not afford the huge cost of the powerchair, so turned to the community for help.

Helena added: “The response has been overwhelming. Considering the time of year, we raised over £6,000 in just over 24 hours. People have been so generous and the post seems to have been shared far and wide. It has been so heartwarming to know that so many people have been so supportive for a family that they don’t necessarily know.”

The motorised wheelchair will have a huge impact on Declan’s life. Physically, he won’t be creating additional problems with his hips and spine from a manual chair. The new wheelchair will also allow Declan to explore more of the world independently.

Declan’s sister added: “As a family, we would like to send our heartfelt thanks to everyone that had donated or even just shared the page to help us achieve so much in such a short space of time. We are very humbled by it all.”

To donate to Declan’s fundraiser, please visit https://gofund.me/4e9411b8

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