Special new seat has brave Ellie all smiles
YOUNG Ellie Thorley smiles and laughs while sitting with the family at the dinner table for the very first time.
The courageous fiveyear-old has cerebral palsy, which means that she has no control of her body.
She is also profoundly deaf, needs to use a wheelchair and suffers from chronic lung disease.
And until now the condition also meant that she couldn’t sit with the family as they ate their meals.
But that has all changed as Ellie enjoys her new ‘P’ Pod device – a specially designed chair for disabled youngsters.
And as well as allowing her to join her family at the dinner table, it means she is much more involved in their life.
Ellie’s mum, Charlotte Rowley, 31, managed to buy the chair after kindhearted family, friends, strangers and local businesses all donated to a fundraising campaign started by her sister Kelly Dobson.
Charlotte, who lives on Greenfield Road, Bollington, with Ellie, Ellie’s dad Chris, sister Abigail, 11, and three-year-old brother Dexter, said: “It is just amazing and has changed the family’s life.
“Ellie loves her new seat, we can’t get her out of it. And it means that she can sit at the same eye level as the rest of the family so is much more included.
“It has made all our lives so much easier.
“We had a tough Christmas as Ellie was quite ill.
“She had laryngitis, scarlet fever and a few other things and we were in hospital for about three weeks, so this is the perfect belated Christmas present.”
Ellie was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was nine months old after being born prematurely at 26 weeks.
Charlotte and Chris are her full time carers.
Charlotte added: “Ellie really does have a smile that could melt anybody’s heart. When my sister started the fundraising the response was incredible – and all the friends, family, and strangers who have been lovely enough to donate really have changed our lives. I cannot thank them all enough.
“She has no independence and I do everything for her, but despite everything she is such a happy little girl.
“Ellie is an inspiration to us all.”