Help Reece to have his own special ‘car’
FUNDRAISER TO BUY POWERED WHEELCHAIR FOR FOUR-YEAR-OLD WHO CAN’T WALK OR SIT UNAIDED
THOUSANDS of pounds have been raised to help a four-year-old boy from St Ann’s become more independent.
Reece Watkinson, who weighed just 2lbs 3oz when he was born 12 weeks premature, can’t sit or walk unaided.
Having been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and hypertonia, the right side of his body is weak and he is reliant on people pushing him in a wheelchair.
But his family are hopeful of raising enough money towards a specially-adapted powered wheelchair they say he would be able to drive himself.
Full-time Mum Lucinda Jones, 22, said Reece, a Huntingdon Academy pupil, was able to try out a model and it had proved beneficial.
She said: “He is a car fanatic, to him this was like his own little car. It’s just allowed him that independence.
“In his manual wheelchair he is like ‘mum, can you take me here?’ In that motored wheelchair he was just off. It has a joystick, which is made for his requirements, and will last until he is 10.”
The family have raised more than £2,180 on a fundraising page, with a target of more than £6,500 set to pay for the Tinytrax wheelchair.
They have also been supported by a mum who saw the page and wanted to help.
Lidia Sherwood, 34, of East Leake, whose 12-year-old daughter Maddison has a rare neuromuscular disease, set up a Facebook group to encourage members to donate £1 towards Reece’s wheelchair.
Mrs Sherwood, a carer for her daughter, who has spinal muscular atrophy respiratory distress [SMARD], and is paralysed from the waist down, explained she had to raise £10,000 for her daughter’s first specially-adapted wheelchair.
She said she knew “how difficult it can be” and wanted to help Reece’s family.
Mrs Sherwood said: “I thought I would love to help and try to do what I can through the powers of social media, that is all we have at the minute.”
The Facebook group has already raised nearly £2,000.
She said: “A few people that know us or know the family have asked privately if they can donate.
“I feel really proud of everybody, it makes you feel really good - especially at the minute with people financially struggling.”
Miss Jones, of Boycroft Avenue, St Ann’s, who lives with her partner
Kyle Watkinson, 23, said: “We are quite private people, we just get on with our lives. We have never really had to ask for help with Reece before. This has been the first major thing we have had to ask for help with.
“Even with Covid, we thought ‘are people even going to want to help?,’ with people losing their jobs.
“It was a big shock when Lidia came in and managed to raise all this money for us. His birthday is on June 4, we’re hoping to get it by then.”
Speaking of Reece’s conditions, Miss Jones, also mum to two-yearold son Rohan and nine-month-old Oakley, said: “We did not know at first, when he was born he suffered two bleeds on his brain.
“His brain was starved of oxygen because of his prematurity. As he grew older he was not meeting his milestones, when a child is supposed to crawl, when they’re supposed to sit up.
“When he was about a year-anda-half he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and hypertonia. Because of Reece’s cerebral palsy, he can’t sit unaided, he can’t walk unaided, he can’t do anything a normal child can do. His hypertonia makes all his limbs very stiff, it’s almost like his body is doing a constant gym session. It makes him tired very easily.
“His communication is absolutely perfect, you can have a full conversation with him. It’s affected his right side more than his left.
“The hypertonia affects all his limbs. His right side is weak but the hypertonia makes everything stiff and a bit harder for him to do stuff.”
Money can be donated to the family’s fundraising page at https:// www.gofundme.com/f/tiny-traxfor-reece
POLICE have shut down marquees set up at the University of Nottingham after reports of parties and noise on campus during the lockdown.
The marquees on the University Park campus were set up for students to use between teaching sessions and in their spare time.
They are heated to provide students with a warm and dry space if they cannot be safely accommodated indoors and are located near Cripps, Rutland, Derby and Ancaster halls of residence.
But police were called by members of the public on Friday night to reports of parties taking place there. Officers said a “crowd was dispersed”.
Inspector Amy English, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Nottinghamshire Police officers continue to work closely with the University of Nottingham and their security teams following reports of noise at the main campus over the weekend.
“The marquees were closed by officers and the on-campus security team following the reports and the crowd was dispersed quickly and safely. We will continue to work with the university on a daily basis to prevent reoccurrences.”
A University of Nottingham spokesperson said: “Following complaints of noise on campus over the weekend, we have taken the decision to temporarily close the marquees at our halls of residence while we review our noise management procedures.”