In Her Honour

Honor is 4 years old and lives in West Melton with her six year-old brother Cameron and wonderful parents Erin and Tony. She is a great bubbly wee girl and tries hard every day in all that she does. Honor was diagnosed with Global Development Delay aged 2. At 3 ½-years, after two MRI scans she was found to have Cerebral Palsy.

Honor’s day to day challenges are her mobility (she is unable to walk unaided), and her independence with everyday tasks such as toileting, feeding and dressing herself. She has a walker that she uses and she also has a wheelchair, which she can propel, that she uses when out and about and at pre-school.

In April, Honor and Erin went to Adelaide to take part in 3 weeks of Therasuit therapy and it was extremely successful. It was intensive therapy, three hours per day with an hour recovery for five days a week. It was a challenge for Honor, but Erin and Tony feel it was hugely beneficial and they now have a good program to be able to do at home. Honor gained a lot of strength for her core to assist mobility, and has shown further improvement since returning home. They were the first family from New Zealand to experience this treatment.

Honor’s regular therapy at home involves her doing the specific exercises Erin learnt in Adelaide. Honor also attends RDA (Riding for the Disabled) once a week, and has weekly swimming lessons, as well as going with Erin and Tony on other occasions.

Honor has had some physiotherapy in the past and Erin and Tony would like to get her back into this soon, possibly fortnightly, but weekly would be even better. They would also like to continue with the Therasuit therapy, hoping to return to Adelaide again in 2016. Erin and Tony would also dearly like to purchase therapy equipment, such as a massage table, special boots for therapy, a massager, peanut ball, quad canes, and some parallel bars.

Our ultimate goal is for Honor to be able to return to Adelaide for further treatments however below are some other lesser valued items that the family could benefit from:

$500 - could go towards physiotherapy for 7 sessions.

$1000 - could go towards therapy equipment; boots, massager, peanut ball, massage table, quad canes and parallel bars.

$10,000 – would cover the Therasuit therapy cost for three weeks in Adelaide.