Students pitch in to help Sophia walk
Help Me Walk Again is the title for Sophia Malthus’s Givealittle page and students at her old school are determined to do just that.
Malthus, who became a tetraplegic after a horse riding accident last November, set up the page on January 4, and it has already raised more than $29,000.
Students from her former school, Nelson College for Girls, will give that total a healthy boost after holding a mufti day collection for Malthus on March 2 which raised $2434.40.
Year 13 head girl Anri Ichikawa and deputy year 13 head girl Holly Mace said they were ‘‘thrilled’’ with the collection’s success.
They said they were overwhelmed by the support and were proud of the school’s reaction to the worthy cause.
‘‘We were really shocked, but in a good way’’, Mace said.
The girls agreed it would have been good to see Sophia’s reaction when she saw how much her old school had raised for her.
The two students said the school of about 1200 usually raised about $1000 so they were excited to discover the final figure raised was more than double that.
Malthus finished year 13 at Nelson College for Girls in 2015 before moving to Auckland where she became a trainee jockey.
In November last year, she was thrown from a horse during training, leaving her with a broken neck and no sensation below her collarbone.
During a year 13 leadership camp held over two days in February, the girls were able to Skype Malthus.
Ichikawa and Mace were there for the chat and said that while most of the students didn’t know Malthus personally, a lot of them came away feeling affected by Malthus’s outlook.
They said they ‘‘got quite emotional afterwards. It wasn’t anything to do with ...sympathy, it was to do with how positive she was.
‘‘It was just really touching.’’
Ichikawa said Malthus was in good spirits.
‘‘Her positivity was just really inspirational to us. We kind of complain about these mundane things when she just has such a great, positive outlook on life.
On the Givealittle page, Malthus said she had ‘‘high hopes of gaining enough recovery to lead a full life again’’. She was exploring alternative treatments which were not currently funded.
Some options included peptide/ hyperbaric oxygen therpay, stem cell therapy and virtual reality running/walking therapy.
The girls said Malthus had been told by doctors she was a good candidate for stem cell research due to her small body mass.