Driving eases family’s strain
Driving lessons may not seem like a lot, but to one Waikato family they’re lifechanging.
Lisa Jessop has always relied on a health shuttle or other family members to ferry her and daughter Anita Annan to and from hospital. There have been plenty of trips. Anita wasn’t supposed to live past the age of four - she is now four and a half.
She has a progressive neurological disorder, a rare condition which has caused her to lose the ability to walk, eat and speak.
Life is tough but driving lessons, funded to the tune of $700 by the Mazda Foundation, will make it a little bit easier.
They’ll help Jessop on her way to getting her licence, so she can transport Anita to appointments and hospital visits herself.
The Hamilton mother hasn’t gone for her license before because with Anita and another younger child she hasn’t had the time.
The family also acquired a Lottery grant to buy a van with a hoist, but Jessop needs to get her licence before she is eligible.
Jessop said getting her licence would improve Anita’s quality of life a lot.
‘‘It would be a huge help,’’ Jessop said. ‘‘It would just be so much easier if I could drive myself and not have to rely on others.’’ Jessop is Anita’s full-time carer. This involves administering her medication four times a day, feeding her through a tube three times a day, going through hand exercises and stretches with her and putting her in her foot brace and standing frame.
‘‘There’s definitely times where it gets hard and I have a cry, but I snap myself out of it and keep going because no-one else can do it.’’
Anita was born seemingly healthy on January 27, 2013. But at nine months Jessop noticed little abnormalities.
At a doctor’s meeting in June 2015, Jessop was told Anita had until the age of four to live.
At this stage it is not known what caused Anita’s illness.
‘‘All I know is she is deteriorating and she is not going to get better.’’
Jessop said she could never be prepared for the end.
‘‘I just want to spend as much time with her as I can before it is too late.’’