Friends run to give girl, 8, a voice

FRIENDS braved the cold weather and took part in the 90km 2018 Comrades Marathon to raise funds for an 8-year-old girl suffering from cerebral palsy.

Isabella Beck, also known as Izzy, from Sandringham, Joburg, needed R60000 for an eye tracker device to allow her to use her eyes to communicate.

One of the six runners, Byron Leggett, said: “This will free up the use of her arm and allow for more efficient and effortless communication when playing and engaging with friends and family.

“The device, operating on specific software, will allow Izzy to communicate through her eye movements and a selection of images and words that will generate a voice output,” Leggett said.

By noon yesterday, the group had raised R60000 through BackaBuddy, a South African fund-raising service. The campaign went live on May 14 and R44859 had been raised by 2pm on Friday.

Leggett said he and his friends were inspired to run the Comrades Marathon after his wife, Nicky, an occupational therapist at Lucca (Loved, Uplifted, Carefree, Cherished Angels) School, a Randburg support and care centre for children with special needs, told him about Isabella.

“The Comrades Marathon is genuinely about the human spirit and how people are pushed to do more than they believe is possible. So we started chatting about how we could use our experience to better someone else’s life,” said Leggett.

“Due to her inability to communicate verbally she is restricted in answering questions in class, engaging or playing with her friends and cousins. It also prevents her being able to call for help when she is hungry, sore or needs to go to the bathroom.

“Currently Izzy communicates with pictures and hand gestures,” he said.

Leggett said Isabella had a “beaming personality, a smile that can melt hearts and an intelligence not to be underestimated”.

“Izzy is just the sweetest girl. She is so excited about life; often we complain about such small things and here you have a little girl who has so many restrictions and yet she never gives up.

“This device will give Izzy a sense of independence and finally, she will have the ‘voice’ she has always longed for. She will finally be able to tell her parents that she loves them,” Leggett said.