Emma Falzon is just like any other five-year-old.
She enjoys the beach, loves painting, dancing, listening to music and jumping on the trampoline. She enjoys going to Ocean Grove Primary School and enthusiastically embraces learning new things.
But Emma has cerebral palsy and epilepsy and functions as a nine- to-12-month-old. She needs your help to make her life just that bit easier.
Emma has recently been given a wheelchair through the NDIS but still needs to be lifted in and out of the chair and into the car each time she goes to school and appointments with mum, Sarah and six-year-old sister, Kasey.
The NDIS is able to modify certain cars to allow wheelchair users to travel in their chair, but Sarah’s car is not suitable.
The NDIS will pay for the required work to modify a car, but cannot help with the costs of the car.
Sarah is a single mum on a low income and cannot buy a new car.
“The NIDIS can only modify a car that is a certain amount of years old up to five years old,” Sarah said.
“I’d be able to wheel her in, straight into the car in her wheelchair and I can just push her in.
“She can travel in the chair and I can just wheel her back out. At the moment I have to lift her in and out of the car, into the chair and I have to lift the chair in and out of the car. She’s only going to get bigger and heavier.
“It would make life so much easier in Emma’s transition into the community, to school, helping Emma be part of the family and it would help me physically and emotionally.
Sarah’s friends have launched a GoFundMe fundraiser to help cover the cost of a new car. They are aiming to raise $50,000.
A close friend of Sarah’s has created a special range of ‘Emma soaps’ that she will sell via her Vitalogy Suds n Scrubs Facebook page and is also organising a Mother’s Day raffle to help raise funds.
Another of Sarah’s close friends is looking into other fundraising possibilities to help achieve the goal.
“We are grateful for the support our friends and community have given us so far, but we have a long way to go,” Sarah said.
To donate, visit: gofund.me/f1b8cf00
