A national children’s charity is appealing to kind-hearted people in North Yorkshire to help them give a six-year-old boy a decent night’s sleep.

Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children is looking to raise £4,759 to buy a specialist bed for Robin.

Robin, who lives North Yorkshire has epilepsy, global developmental delay and cannot roll, crawl, stand, walk or talk. So his mum Sarah approached the Newlife to fund a specialist bed. Robin is currently sleeping in a cot which is far too small and it is becoming increasingly unsafe for his parents and carers to lift him in and out of it.

Sarah found that the local PCT would only fund a bed designed for adults, but not one specifically for a child and she feels that this is not suitable for Robin.

“We’ve complained and appealed to the PCT, but we exhausted all possibilities so we turned to Newlife,” Sarah said.

“Giving a severely disabled young child an adult bed is totally inappropriate. The bed we were offered would have kept Robin safe, but would have made it difficult for us and Robin’s other carers to put him to bed and attend to all his other personal care needs easily as it was not fully height adjustable. The specialist children’s bed would allow us to care for Robin much more easily and also has see through sides which is more appropriate for Robin’s developmental age. He likes and needs to look out from his cot at the world and the people close to him and we need to be able to see into the cot easily as Robin needs close monitoring.”

Robin’s parents are currently having adaptations made to the family home for Robin which will include a ground floor bathroom which will be fully wheelchair accessible for Robin. However he will need a bed once the build is complete. They received some help through the Disabled Facilities Grant but still had to contribute thousands of pounds of their own money to pay for the rest of the work.

Sarah said: “The whole venture has been very expensive and for some reason people still assume that if you have a disabled child you just get whatever you need – but that’s not true. People just assumed that we’d get the right bed for Robin if we asked, but they don’t understand the reality of life for us. These children have very difficult and limited lives and deserve the most appropriate equipment and resources available without having to wait or battle as is so often the case.“

Newlife currently needs to raise £9,790 to help five children in North Yorkshire. The charity has provided equipment grants totalling £104,473 for 126 children in North Yorkshire but is experiencing increased demands on resources and increased calls to the Newlife Nurse helpline (0800 902 0095 – www.newlifecharity.co.uk).

Newlife CEO Sheila Brown, OBE said: “Because of the huge demand, we are calling on ‘local heroes’ to help us raise money to fund equipment for Robin and other children inNorth Yorkshire. Newlife guarantees that 100 per cent of any gift or donation will go directly to help disabled children in the area.”

Any monies raised in excess of that needed for Robin will go to help other disabled children inNorth Yorkshire.

If you think you can help, the Newlife Community Fundraising Team can be contacted on freephone 0800 988 4640. Any individual or organisation thinking of running a fundraising event is asked to contact the team, who can offer support and guidance.

Anyone who wants to supply equipment directly to the family, please contact Newlife.

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