Community rallies around Tamzyn

A celebrity builder, the Variety Bash and volunteers are coming together to make big changes for a local family.

Tamzyn Twidle (aged nine) is severely disabled. There is no official diagnosis but she has been classed with the motor function symptoms of a child with cerebral palsy.

She cannot walk, talk, see or eat.

She lives in Matamata, with parents Raegan Edwards and Daniel Twidle and two younger siblings Bronson, 7, and Tahlia, 2.

As Tamzyn gets older her needs increase. Their family home is now too small for Tamzyn.

Raegan started a fundraising campaign to enlarge Tamzyn’s bedroom.

Thanks to the Variety Bash, reality TV builder John (Cocksy) Cocks and big-hearted companies and individuals who have volunteered time and supplies, the project has segued into a bathroom and an additional bedroom so Bronson and Tahlia no longer have to share.

The home is being painted inside and out, and the living area and kitchen will become open plan.

A government funded hoist is unused from lack of space, so Tamzyn is carried. The additional space means the used.

Cocksy, with partner Dana Cootes, acting as project managers, Plumbco, and architect Daniel Cullen are just a few of the contractors leading a charge of volunteers.

Raegan says Cocksy sees the hoist can be project being completed in three days, starting this Friday. A project of this kind would need many hands - and that’s just what they are getting.

A Facebook page, dedicated to Tamzyn’s fundraising welcomed new contractors or lending hands every few days, and Raegan has lost count of how many people to expect.

The project is very humbling for Raegan and Daniel, and the community response is overwhelming. As Raegan speaks with The Chronicle, she has tears in her eyes on more than one occasion.

‘‘We have confirmed over 100 people,’’ she says. ‘‘With at least 50 more who have just recently come on board.

‘‘We are privileged to be able to do this. We haven’t gone out looking for anyone for the build, people have just come. We have been very lucky.’’