Buy Joseph a bed
JOSEPH Warren is living proof the Sunshine Fund changes lives.
The 12-year-old from Wallsend has cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus and his family applied to the charity for a specialist wheelchair two years ago.
It changed their lives and now the family is hoping the Sunshine Fund can help them again with a specialist bed, which he desperately needs as he grows.
The fund purchases specialist equipment for local children with disabilities when it cannot be provided on the NHS as pieces can cost thousands of pounds.
In 2017, the Warrens needed a more robust wheelchair to allow them to go on adventurous family days out together as Joseph’s current chair was not sturdy enough.
The new wheelchair made life so much easier for the family but, devastatingly, it was destroyed when Joseph, his dad Stephen and brother Samuel were in a car crash in August.
Joseph was left traumatised after being left trapped in the car which had ended up on its side and even had to spend a week in hospital with a gut problem which the family believe was caused by the seatbelt.
Stephen had to have plastic surgery to remove the glass from his arm and Samuel, 15, suffered whiplash.
Thankfully, they are all on the mend and the wheelchair was replaced with an identical one by their car insurance company.
Mum Nicola, who also has Joseph’s twin Eleanor and Eliza-Rae, five, said: “We realised how much we had taken for granted how good it was when we had to use his old NHS wheelchair again for two months - it was just rubbish in comparison.
“The new one is fantastic and so much more robust, we can go just about anywhere with it.”
Joseph has been chosen as one of the children to benefit from the Sunshine Fund’s Christmas Appeal and it is hoped to raise £20,000 to puchase him a new bed.
Specialist beds cost thousands of pounds but as he grows life is becoming a struggle for his parents.
Currently, his bed is low in case he falls out but this means Nicola, a parttime paediatric intensive care nurse, struggles to lift him out on a morning.
The new bed would be adjustable and it also has a safety rail.
Nicola, 48, added: “It would just make life so much easier.
“He is now almost as tall as me and only a little bit lighter.
“He is also needing more privacy now and at the minute we have to get him out of his bed and take him into our bedroom to get him dressed where the bed is a bit higher.
“So it would improve his quality of care as he can be looked after in his own room with privacy as our bedroom is like Central Station at times with people coming and going!”
To donate to the Christmas Appeal, Text SUNF18 £3, £5 or £10 to 70070.