So you all know my Dad, Martin Goode! The funny guy in the wheelchair? Those of you who’ve know him a while will know he’s a very tall guy, 6ft4. However he hasn’t seen the world from that height in 5 years...so we want to get him a STANDING WHEELCHAIR.

Dad has multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease which affects your nervous system; which for him has caused problems with balance, mobility, fine motor skills, speech, eating, breathing, and problems carrying out normal day to day activities and independence.

He has had MS for 11 years, however in recent years he’s been confined to a wheelchair permanently, and needs manual handling & hoisting to get out of bed, into a chair etc, which as you can imagine has a big impact on his freedom and independence.

Having this chair can change EVERYTHING. The chair will allow him to stand up and talk to people at eye level. He can drive the chair whilst standing and essentially WALK. In his current chair he can’t reach anything in the house and can really only access the lounge and his bedroom; when we are all out at work he is stuck in the same place in the house all day. In this standing chair he can go to the kitchen, make himself food, go to any room in the house. When out he can stand up and have a beer with his pals, see above people’s heads (he is tall as I said). He can stand up and cheer for the Arsenal at the emirates. He could walk me down the aisle on my (hypothetical future...) wedding day!

In addition to this, when Dad is tired and wants to lie down, he can’t just simply do this. He has to wait for someone to hoist him into bed. If he wants to nap during the day, he has to nap in a seated position which we all know is not comfortable. This new chair also has a lying down function, so he can just lie down whenever he wants!

Lastly, the health benefits will be huge! Problems around breathing, eating, talking, even fine motor skills all come from being sat at a 90 degree angle all the time with no circulation going through his body. When Dad tried out this new chair, he said he could FEEL HIS LEGS STRETCHING! He normally can’t feel his legs! It’s just incredible!

This incredibleness comes at a price of 12 thousand sweet British pounds! But for some reason people seem to LOVE my dad, whether they are his friends, family, friends of mine who barely know him, strangers on the street...he has lots of support & love around him so I’m sure we can all raise a good chunk of money! So please help us, any amount however big or small will be a huge help - every little helps 💖

Thank you in advance! Lots of love from the Goode family xxx