Kindness of others is allowing us to bring up kids in our own home
Builders spend £30k upgrading facilities for six-year-old Murray
Paisley parents have received a life-changing donation of £30k worth of construction works to renovate their home to suit the needs of their six-yearold quadriplegic son.
Kibble Group has brought together a group of its suppliers and has donated £15,000 to one of its key workers, allowing a family of five to stay in their beloved family home and have a better quality of life.
Emma Jordan is a care worker with national children’s charity Kibble and her six-year-old son Murray lives with quadriplegic cerebral palsy and uncontrolled epilepsy after surviving a stroke just 12 hours after his birth.
Murray was born in 2017 with mum Emma saying everything was going as planned before medics had to revive the newborn just hours after he was welcomed into the world.
The family were transferred to Glasgow Royal Hospital for Children for further vital treatment and tests before Emma and Peter were told that little Murray had a neonatal stroke.
The condition, which occurs in as many as one in 2,500 full-term infants, has impacted the life of the youngster greatly.
Emma and Murray’s dad, Peter, had identified back in 2021 that they needed to raise £30,000 for a new bedroom and wet room on the ground floor of the family home to provide essential care for Murray.
Murray’s bedroom is currently on the first floor of the home, meaning he has to be physically carried up and down stairs throughout the day.
With Murray having up to 30 seizures a day, this carries an incredible amount of risk and the family were told they would need to move to a home more suitable, upheaving them from the family home they love and share with their other two children nine-year-old Fraser and Sophia who is one.
However, it took the couple two years to pluck up the courage to ask for help and begin fundraising for the money.
Mum Emma told the Express: “As Murray’s parents, we felt that we should be able to pay for the changes we needed within the home and we couldn’t bring ourselves to ask for help. But, after two years, we realised it just wasn’t possible and we started to mention to people around us about the fundraising needed. The young people at Kibble really rallied around and started to come up with ideas including a superhero walk and a donation bucket but when I reached out to the senior team for approval, they came back to say that they would actually help to go further.”
Kibble decided to host a charity ball at St Mirren Football Club and reached out to all of its suppliers for support in attending the event, providing raffle prizes and promoting the fundraising initiative to help the family raise the funds needed.
However, while speaking to its suppliers, construction company Cleland Joiners and Builders made an offer to do the full build
extension of the home for free, and SGS Landscapes agreed to refresh the garden at the family home to make it more accessible for Murray.
Kibble Group had already committed to matching up to £15,000 of money raised and will continue to do so.
The donations means that the family can continue to provide the care that Murray needs within the family home and, with his bedroom and wet room now downstairs, they will no longer need to physically carry him up and down the stairs every day.
Murray will also now have access to the garden which he loves, with increased safety in his day-to-day routine. Emma said: “I cannot begin to put into words how thankful we are.
“We’ve had to fight for every single bit of help we’ve been given to support Murray so this is absolutely incredible and it really is life changing for our family.
“Without this support, we had been told we’d have to move house which was heartbreaking for us – we have three young children who have grown up here. I just keeping asking why people are helping. I can’t believe it.”
Jim Gillespie, chief executive at Kibble, is delighted with the support Emma and Murray have received.
He said: “Murray’s story is one that touches the hearts of everyone and anyone who hears it, and Emma has such a strong relationship with the young people she supports at Kibble, that they’ve rallied round her and Murray since day one.
“When we fully understood the support she and Murray needed, there really was no hesitation to step in and I’m grateful to both Cleland Joiners and Builders and SGS Landscapers for their support.”
Derek Cleland, director at Cleland Construction, said: “It’s wonderful to be able to help. When Kibble got in touch, there was no question for us and, with the help and generosity of our long-standing suppliers, we are completing the build for free and at no cost to the family.”
And Brian Hamilton, managing director at SGS Landscapes, added: “When we heard about Murray’s story, we wanted to help in any way possible.
“We hope our part will go some way to making things a bit easier for Emma and the family.”