MOVING GESTURE Community rallies for sick girl’s transport needs

CASSANDRA Lau’s fears she would one day be unable to lift her daughter Tahlia from her wheelchair into the car have disappeared after the community rallied together to buy a life-changing gift.

It was a chance meeting between Ms Lau’s mother and a Townsville Rotary Club member outside a Bunnings store that sparked a chain of events that ended on Saturday when Tahlia and her mum were presented with a car adapted specifically to their needs.

Tahlia, 5, was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder called lissencephaly at the age of five months and suffers from multiple seizures every day.

Lissencephaly is a rare, genelinked brain malformation that means Tahlia’s brain is smooth like an egg, instead of covered in cauliflower-like folds.

“We’ve kind of known for about two years now that we’ve needed a disability car but it’s been really hard being a single parent trying to raise the money,” Ms Lau said.

“I get worried about having to lift her, that my back might give out and I might not be able to care for her because I’m her primary carer.”

Straight off the factory floor, a Kia Carnival costs $50,000. Modifications to the car to make it wheelchair-accessible would cost more than $30,000.

Ms Lau burst into tears on Saturday when she thanked the crowd that had gathered at Pickerings Kia showroom to watch her receive the car.

Dubbed “Project Tahlia”, the Rotary club groups across Townsville worked for months to raise the money for the car.

Pickerings knocked thousands off the price of the vehicle and multiple corporate sponsors and members of the community pitched in funds. The modifications were funded under the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Ms Lau can now wheel Tahlia up a ramp and secure her safely in the chairs.

“(Tahlia) loves going for drives at night time; she loves lights so we tend to go down The Strand and Flinders St a lot,” she said.

“It’s a challenge every day when it comes to raising Tahlia … (but) she’s an awesome kid, a really great kid.”

A final-year James Cook University student studying to be a primary school teacher, Ms Lau hopes she will end up working where Tahlia goes to school.