A 13-YEAR-OLD girl confined to a faulty electric wheelchair is looking to raise almost £20,000 so she can buy a new one – and has invited her whole village to the fundraising party and will even shave her head.
Philippa Smith, who lives in Wycke Lane in Tollesbury, was born ten weeks prematurely and suffers from cerebral palsy so has to use an electric wheelchair to get around.
But for the last few years the chair, which she got in 2009, started to lose charge, meaning that it stops, often in the most inconvenient places, like on a school trip in France when the battery went flat.
"The battery was really flat and it kept running out having charged it the whole night. It would run out after 30 minutes," said Philippa, who said that her classmates had to push her.
"I was on flat ground, I drive along and it will stop and start. I would have to be really slow for the rest of the day. It's annoying, say if I'm trying to keep up with my friends, but they stay behind.
"It has been kind of flat since the beginning, it just would not charge and it would say that it was charging. We had to buy a whole new battery, it was a lot of money.
"But in this new wheelchair, I will feel like it's more safe. It's higher. I will be able to reach things. I'll certainly feel like I can rely on my wheelchair a bit more."
Her mum Caroline, 41, said: "You don't want her to be missing out on what everyone else is up to. The chairs are big and heavy and you have to trust it.
"It's the everyday stuff – she is just going around with her mates in the playground and it stops and starts but there she is safe.
"But now she goes out on her own and what would happen if she was in the middle of Colchester High Street or crossing the road?"
The new chair, which costs around £23,000, is being partially funded by £3,000 worth of NHS vouchers – but the family are looking to raise the rest.
Caroline continued: "The chair will just include her in so much more and give her confidence.
"If you are sitting all day in the same position, you can get comfortable. But when you are at school you are in one position but when you are at home you are in a different position.
"She's permanently in the chair. She's completely dependent on it."
And later this month at 4pm on Saturday, June 21, Philippa, her three siblings Matthew, Samantha and Georgina, along with Caroline, are set to hold a fundraising fair in their back garden to raise the £19,800 needed – which includes the plucky youngster having her head shaved with people being charged £1 a snip.
The fair will also include a lucky dip, raffle, table tennis, football and darts – as well as music by local children and musicians, along with food and drink.
"We have a parish magazine that I have put an advert in and there are posters up in her school," said Caroline.
"We have put it up on lampposts, we have printed off some to put in our neighbours' doors to let them come along and maybe about 20 posters around the town.
"I would like to get 100 people but I have promises from friends that they are coming, so hopefully we will get a few if no one comes," added Philippa.
For more information about the day, contact Caroline Smith on 01621 869 121.
