Altona Meadows mother Maureen Visser has picked up a new car with wheelchair access for disabled son Nathan, after turning to crowdfunding to help raise the $71,000 needed.
Nathan Visser, a 12-year-old pupil at Warringa Park School in Hoppers Crossing, is one of about 60 people in Australia with Charge syndrome.
Nathan has severe heart and lung problems and was not expected to survive more than a few days after birth.
He can’t go anywhere without his oxygen tank, breathes through his neck, is fed through a peg in his stomach and has a host of other medical problems.
He has only half a heart – but it’s a big one, says Ms Visser, who has been a sole parent since her husband died when Nathan was 13 months old.
Getting to school had become an ordeal the bigger Nathan grew, with Maureen having to lift him in and out of her old car.
The total cost of a wheelchair conversion and car – under government legislation a conversion has to be done on a new car – was more than $71,000.
The Rotary Club of Altona took up the cause to raise the final $30,000 with its ‘5:6 campaign’ calling on 6000 people to donate $5 each.
Western Kia, at Caroline Springs, also threw its support behind the campaign, donating more than $4000 of disabled access accessories for the new Kia Carnival.
Ms Visser said she wanted to thank everyone who had helped and said she would now turn to helping other families facing the same difficulty.
