The family of Brecon boy Malyn Wilkinson-Lawday are backing the launch of an appeal to provide specialist equipment for children with disabilities in Powys.

Malyn’s mum is so pleased with the specialist buggy that gets him to and from school that she is urging local people to help change the lives of other local children.

Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children has helped 31 families in Powys through equipment grants and loans totalling more than £40,150, so we know there is a very real county need.

That’s why Newlife – the largest charity funder of specialist equipment for children with disabilities and terminal illness in the UK – is launching the Newlife Powys Fund – www.newlifecharity.co.uk/powys. It is an opportunity for local people to help local disabled children and every penny donated or fundraised in Powys is guaranteed to support families in the county.

In this way we aim to help more children, more quickly.

Special disability equipment including wheelchairs, walkers, beds, seating and communication aids can help give children independence, keep them safe, relieve pain and overcome challenges. For instance, you could help a child be discharged from hospital, take their first steps or kick a football with their friends. . . .

You can help Newlife help more children like Malyn (full story below) who was provided with a £652 specialised buggy that has prevented social isolation for him and his family.

Together we can really change the lives of children with disability and terminal illness – supporting them to experience and enjoy life and all that we take for granted.

Statutory services in Powys often have a responsibility to make equipment provision – but when help is declined, Newlife steps in. The charity challenges many such decisions and has an impressive success rate. However, where we are unable to overturn these decisions, we provide the equipment ourselves through our range of grant and loan services. We do this with the support of front-line health professionals across Powys who have helped Newlife help local children in real need.

The Newlife Powys Fund will support equipment provision for under-19s facing any significant disability, whether acquired through birth defect, prematurity, accident or illness.

Vitally, the Powys Fund website – www.newlifecharity.co.uk/powys – will enable local people to find out who needs help in their county right now and highlight the support the charity gives vulnerable families. It includes contact details for the Newlife County Liaison Team – telephone number 01543 431 444 or email local@newlifecharity.co.uk – and shows specific ways people can help support children with disability and terminal illness and their families.

That might involve taking part in a local sporting challenge, give you information on how to organise a fundraising event – or even ask you to donate £5 today! Volunteers are also needed to help raise awareness of what we do and how we do it.

We hope that by launching the Newlife Powys Fund, children with disabilities or terminal illness in the county won’t have to go without the equipment they need for everyday life.

Newlife Foundation supports families in Powys through a range of free services:

Nurse-staffed helpline

Equipment grants

Emergency equipment loans

Sensory and developmental toy ‘pod’ loans.

MALYN’S LIFE MADE SAFER

New equipment for her son has made the world of difference to Brecon mum Anna Lawday.

Malyn has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and learning disabilities with no safety awareness and struggles to run or climb. He will go into the road and put himself at risk without the use of a buggy when out. The youngster had outgrown his previous buggy, so taking Malyn on routine short journeys became a risk to his life.

Anna explained: ”For the last three years since my five-year-old son Malyn was diagnosed with ASD and hyperactivity, his lack of sense of danger has overshadowed our day to day lives, limited where we can go and meant that we’ve not been on holiday or rarely ventured out for family walks or day trips.

“He has escaped from the house, pulled free from my hand and run off. We’ve lost him on countless attempted family days out to the beach and mountain walks.

“We live in a rural village in the Brecon Beacons so I was finding it impossible to find a buggy for a child Malyn’s weight and size, and one that he couldn’t escape from.

“Then another mother at his special school recommended Newlife Foundation as she had been granted a mobility pushchair for her autistic son. I applied and I had the buggy within a few days of approval.

“It has made a huge difference to our lives,” Anna added. “Not just for Malyn, who loves being in it, but to myself, my partner and our other two children.

“We have been on shopping trips, country walks, jogging along the canal, and our favourite – venturing back up to the village pub to meet up with old friends and neighbours and their children. We are now able to socialise again and have planned a holiday to make up for the ones lost over the past few years.”

Pictured: Malyn Wilkinson-Lawday

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