‘WE WOULDN’T HAVE SURVIVED WITHOUT THAT CHAIR’
ANGUS Hopkins is flying high a year after getting his new motorised wheelchair — and not just because of his new physiotherapy regimen with Belinda Bell (left).
The Nobby boy with cerebral palsy has gone from being pulled around in a wheelbarrow to becoming an independent child. His mother Jody Ezzy said the $26,000 wheelchair from the National Disability Insurance Scheme is the reason.
ANGUS Hopkins now barely resembles the boy his mother Jody Ezzy knew from a year ago, before he received his motorised wheelchair.
The Nobby boy, who has cerebral palsy, was being pulled around in a wheelbarrow 12 months ago, and facing a two-year wait for a new chair from the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
“The chair has just changed Gus’ life,” Ms Ezzy said, reflecting on the journey she took to get her son what he deserved.
“It’s been an interesting 12 months, but we wouldn’t have survived without that chair.”
Thanks to a national media campaign that started with The Chronicle’s original article, the NDIS approved Angus’ $26,000 chair within days and it arrived in June.
Now enjoying a newfound independence from his mother, Angus takes the chair out across the family’s property, takes part in school sports programs and can freely explore his interests and hobbies.
Ms Ezzy said she no longer feared for her son’s development, now he had the opportunity to live more like an able-bodied child.
“Life’s been up and down, but as for the stuff with the chair and NDIS, it’s been lifechanging,” she said.
“Even day to day (has changed) – he plays netball with kids, played footy at a footy coaching day, and competed in the sports day at school.
“He wants to go to uni and study history, and become a historian.”
Ms Ezzy said the NDIS had also become far easier to work with, saying she was pleased with how helpful they had become.
Belinda Bell, who works with Angus at Toowoomba Kids Physiotherapy, has been helping him to work different parts of his body through fun games and a pulley system within a cage that isolates muscles in his body.