Miro’s shower takes shape
Eva Romanowski was close to tears talking about the ‘‘amazing’’ community project to build her fiveyear-old son Miro a new shower room.
For most people, the ability to take a shower and use a hand basin is taken for granted.
But for Miro, a young boy with cerebral palsy and ataxia, having a shower room he can use is life changing.
The construction project on the family’s Teal Valley property, near Nelson, is close to being completed thanks to a huge effort from volunteers and contributors in the community.
The family had been planning to build a new shower room for some time, but the project was stalled due to time and money.
The current shower room was about 10 metres from the house and up six steep steps.
It was cramped and unsuitable for washing Miro, who was prone to having muscle spasms, as he got older and bigger.
Nelson man Murray Leaning heard of the family’s plight after leading another community project to revamp the home of Nelson teen Bernadette Perrone, who has Ivemark syndrome, last year.
He got in touch and a plan was hatched to build Miro a four by twometre wet floor shower room.
The new room is big enough for him to him to be wheeled in to wash himself.
It also includes a hand basin and light switches that are low enough for him to use.
Eva said tradesmen and construction companies had been volunteering their time on the project for the past two weeks.
‘‘It’s really humbling,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s going to be a major change for us just having the freedom of putting Miro in a shower chair and actually washing him rather than trying to hold on to something slippery in a really small, tight shower.’’
She said the timing couldn’t be better as a rat chewed through the hot water pipe to their old shower just last week.
Eva said Miro had loved having the tradesmen at the house and was mesmerised watching his new shower room take shape.
Leaning said the shower room would most likely be finished by tomorrow.
He said he was still looking for a ‘‘cash injection’’ of about $2000 to get it over the line.
To help raise the outstanding money, Leaning was organising an overnight wheelchair marathon at Mitre 10 Mega next month that people could sponsor.
Eva said she was ‘‘close to tears’’ when trying to find the words to thank everyone involved in helping with the project.
‘‘It just means so much,’’ she said. ‘‘I’d love to give back if there was another project going somewhere, someday.
‘‘I’m just amazed that they’re all here and all so nice and they’re all giving their free time.
‘‘It makes you feel a bit guilty sometimes.’’