Mum’s joy over £150k care equipment offer
AWOMAN has offered £150,000 worth of equipment to a man who suffered brain injuries in a car crash.
Ryan Womack, 24, was left paralysed and with brain injuries after the late night crash in Manchester last year and is being cared for at the Stocks Hall Care Home in Mawdesley.
His mum, Helen Womack, hopes to raise enough money to bring him home to Bamber Bridge to care for him.
After her appeal went out on LancsLive, she received a message from Carol Davies, from Lancaster, who has offered her £150,000 worth of care equipment.
“I can’t give it away,” said Carol. “I’ve offered it up for free for three years, put it on eBay but no one wants it, I can’t pay people to take it.
“It’s Helen’s if she wants it, free of charge.”
She spent around £150,000 on equipment to care for her late husband Donald Berry after he was injured in 2010.
The father-of-one was working as a crane driver at the Kendal Calling music and arts festival when his crane hit a live wire and gave him a electric shock.
It shut off oxygen to his brain and rendered him severely disabled.
Carol, who has since remarried, said: “It’s such a shame, we got no help from the government, it cost us £210,000 a year for care which we had to pay for ourselves.
“We had nine carers coming to the house each day.”
The money quickly ran out and Donald had to be moved to a care home.
But Carol, keen to have him back, had a new plan.
She bought a larger fivebedroom house and planned to pay less for live-in carers.
“It was all planned out,” she said. “I was going to cover some of Donald’s care to bring the cost down but when we bought this house he never made it back.”
Donald died on August 23, 2016 aged 51. Carol says that sepsis and pneumonia were thought to have been the cause of his death.
Having bought all the equipment, including a £16,000 bed and mattress, a hoist and slip sheets, to care for Donald, she has decided to donate it all to Helen and Ryan.
Helen is still fundraising through GoFundMe to bring her son home.
She was overjoyed by Carol’s generosity.
“She’s amazing, everybody has been amazing, the community support has been phenomenal,” she said.
“I can’t stress how brilliant they have all been.
“We are doing all right; we are keeping positive.”
Helen said that Ryan has been having red light treatment, which helps increase the blood flow to his brain and is responding well.