Three-year-old Bailey Jennings will urgently need painful hip surgery without a specialist standing frame to stretch out his muscles.
Bailey, from Heald Green in Cheadle, has Cerebral Palsy which affects the muscles of both legs and his right hand. He can’t sit up, crawl or stand.
Bailey’s health professionals told mum, Abigail, that he needs to be strapped into a specialist standing frame to stretch his tight muscles and hips several hours a day. But the one he uses at nursery is too bulky to take home and he is only there 20 hours a week.
As The NHS doesn’t fund duplicate equipment, mum, Abigail Morrison, turned to Newlife the Charity for Disabled children for the £1,180 standing frame.
Abigail said: “Bailey needs to stretch his muscles after nursery, weekends and holidays, otherwise they spasm painfully and become tight and rigid. This causes his hips to rotate out of place faster and speed up the need for surgery to correct it.
“I was so relieved when the standing frame arrived from Newlife. I can already see that Bailey’s not in as much pain and finds it easier to use his hand.
“Bailey is so happy he can stand up as he can do so much more. He plays games with his brother, Caeden, aged 12, and sister, Reyna, aged nine, and helps me bake in the kitchen too.”
Stephen Morgan, Newlife’s Head of Charity Operations, said: “Most people don’t realise that standing frames are very bulky pieces of equipment which can’t be transported between school and home. As a result disabled children have limited access to what is vital equipment – so all their hard work goes to waste.
“Not only does the right equipment at the right time help combat pain and prevent conditions worsening – to the point surgery is needed – it can also help disabled children experience more in life and achieve their full potential.
“There are now 1.1 million disabled children in the UK which is 15 per cent rise in the number of disabled children in the UK in the last year alone, which means more families than ever before are having to turn to Newlife for help.
“It’s critical that local clinical commissioning groups and local authorities recognise the true level of need so they can plan and budget effectively so disabled children don’t have to go without.”
