iCare delighted to make donation to McCabe Family

iCare Charity were absolutely delighted to be able to make a donation to Kate McCabe’s daughter Maeve recently. Maeve’s specific needs mean that she is a part-time wheelchair user. For trips outside the house Maeve is completely reliant on a wheelchair. Distributing wishes over the years has enabled the team at iCare to become all too aware of just how complex a child’s needs can be as a wheelchair user. For this reason, when we were asked to grant a wish to the McCabe’s, making the purchase of a ‘Joker Junior’ possible, in the hope of adding greater flexibility to life for little Maeve, we were only too delighted. The unique compact and lightweight nature of the Joker Junior means it can fit into the car with ease, making family trips and trips independent of her parents, away from the home possible for Maeve, for the first time ever. Maeve’s mum Kate told us that the Joker Junior, “is a much lighter chair than the one Maeve currently uses as provided by the HSE. Another big advantage is that this new chair comes with a detachable parent handle, which acts like the parent handle on children’s trikes making the chair easier to push with one hand and freeing my other hand to hold on to Maeve’s twin brother Francis.”

Features like these significantly increase the cost of the chair. Kate went on to explain that, “Maeve’s seating requirements are made complex as she has hypotonia and hypermobility and needs supportive seating to help prevent scoliosis. Maeve is high risk when it comes to drop seizures, tripping and falling and fact that she can’t sit safely at a table makes her chair and its adoptability to her specific requirements essential.”

We believe that everyone has the right to a life that is comfortable, were their basic needs are met and one which enables them to feel safe and secure, thus we were heart warmed to be in a position to make this possible for the McCabe’s with our contribution of £1,700 to enable them to achieve their target of £4,550 for Maeve’s new Joker Junior.

We were reduced to tears of love and joy when Kate came back to us with a very special message of thanks to the iCare team. “The road parents of children with special needs find themselves on is not one they ever imagined they would travel. But that journey is made so much better by the travellers you meet along it. Some of them are other parents, some are caregivers and then there are people like yourselves…. Those helping hands mean more than you will ever realise. It’s not just the acquisition of that vital piece of equipment which can turn lives around, it’s lifting hearts and minds showing your care for us, because as your charity so aptly says, “ I care”. Thank you so much, Kate.”

It is our pleasure to be able to lift the hearts of the McCabe’s by doing something good in our simple act of kindness.