NATE & HIS BIG BROTHER

Nate is just 3 years old.  He was born on 24 July 2006 and at just a few days of age, Nate starting having seizures down one side of his body.  After exhaustive testing, Nate was diagnosed with Lissencephaly – a condition which leaves children with severe neurological impairment.

Due to the severity of Nate’s condition, he will not ever have the ability to walk, talk or eat independently.  He has uncontrolled seizures 24 hours a day, is fed via a PEG tube through his abdomen and requires constant care – provided by his wonderful single mum. 

Nate also has hip dysplasia which can make him very uncomfortable during the night.  He wakes often and needs to be rolled back over onto his side to allow him to fall back to sleep.  The constant waking and its associated feelings of sleep deprivation are of great concern for both Nate and for his mum.

Through Nate’s Appeal we hope to raise $3,800 towards the cost of a Jenx Dreama Sleep System (a customisable configurable mattress system) that will provide excellent postural support for Nate, keeping him in the correct, comfortable position throughout the night.  This, and some well-deserved uninterrupted nights of sleep, is vital for Nate’s well-being – and that of his mum too.

Well done everyone!  We’ve reach the appeal target of $967 in just two weeks – and in time to order that trike for Billy for his 16th birthday.  I hope to be able to bring you a picture of Billy on his trike sometime soon.

An angel sleeping

Each year in Australia over 65,000 children accompany a parent or guardian to a crisis accommodation provider.

Many are fleeing domestic violence.

Many have no possessions with them other than what they are wearing.

Under the guidance of the wonderful Despina Parakas, Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids
is a great new organisation that puts together backpacks for these children containing essential personal items.  Think blankets, a change of clothing, a special toy, a book, a torch, soap, shampoo,nappies and wipes for the babes etc.

At the moment they are very short on pyjamas – and that’s where we come in.  I Give A Buck! aims to raise $1,500 to pay for 100 pairs of new pyjamas for these very worthy children.  You can help by donating to this appeal now

Penny at Sovereign Hill

Penny’s family has been successful in obtaining a grant to pay for the remainder of the cost of her standing frame!

There’s one in Sydney making it’s way down to Penny as this is being written.

Congratulations to this wonderful community for raising $4,161 toward a much needed item for Penny.  Penny’s mum tells me that Penny can’t wait to be able to stand up in the kitchen and help with the cooking!  Well done everyone!

The wonderful folks at New Level Personal Training – Moonee Ponds have selected IGAB to be their charity of choice for the upcoming Run Melbourne event.  They are determined to help us to reach the target for Penny’s Appeal and then to continue to support IGAB and our future Appeals!  THANK YOU to Jen Etcell and the whole crew.  The first donations are already on the board. Go team!

Gosh this is a great community!  What a great response to Billy’s Appeal so far.  Donations have poured in and if we have another good day tomorrow I think we can safely say that Billy is going to get his trike -only $330 to go!  Come on guys – let’s do it!

For privacy reasons we can't show a photograph of the actual child concerned. Photo by Arvind Balaraman

Every child should be able to experience the simple joy of rushing through the park on their very own tricycle.  Billy* has never experienced that feeling – but you can help make his dream come true by donating to Billy’s Appeal.

Billy turns 16 on July 5th and wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could raise the funds needed to pay for a tricycle for Billy in time for his birthday?

Billy suffers from a chromosomal disorder that requires him to have a very special, customised tricycle from Body Cycles in South Australia.  The cost of the trike and all the necessary accessories is $967

To donate to Blly’s Appeal click here.

*name changed for privacy reasons

WOW!  How wonderful is our new web site?! It’s all courtesy of Nicki McKay and her team at Green Label Web Design & Development.  If anyone needs a new web site PLEASE talk to Nicki  she’s just terrific to work with and, as you can see, her work is pretty terrific too!