I've raised £6000 to help purchase a specialist bike for our Dad who is a C2 ventilator dependant tetraplegic.
Organised by Nazia White
Story
What are we raising money for?
The Thera Trainer Tigo 530 is a medical grade upper and lower body trainer that was developed for people with Spinal cord injury, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinsons Disease and Brain injury. The trainer facilitates functional recovery and improved motor skills, it has a positive effect on many other aspects of health. Some of the benefits of exercising with a THERA-Trainer include, treating contractures (restricted joint function and movement) Improving coordination and motor skills, Stimulates the cardiovascular system and circulation, activates the metabolism and aids digestion, loosens the muscles and maintain residual muscle power, reduces water retention, improve core stability and stabilises the mind. The cost of the trainer is £6,000.
Dad’s story...
"Try to imagine being in a chair with your feet bound and your hands tied behind your back. Then imagine being on a machine that gives you thirty breaths per minute and doesn't allow you to sigh, or take a deep breath when you feel you need one. Then imagine never being able to use the bathroom or shower when you want to, to brush you teeth, feed yourself, scratch an itch, or wipe your eyes if you need to cry. Imagine never having any privacy, never being able to hug someone when you really want to. Sleepless nights when you are unable to breathe, equipment failures that threaten your life..."
This is a small snapshot into life as a tetraplegic. A couple of years after dad’s spinal cord injury, someone walked passed me on the street wearing the same aftershave he had always used. It just transported me back to all those times he had picked me up in the car or opened the front-door to me, made me a cup of tea and thrown his arms around me. It just hit me that he’d never be able to physically do those things for me again, in that moment I just wanted to collapse on the street corner and cry as I ached to have his arms around me for one more time...(extract taken from Aspire Charity's online blog on dad & Foz https://www.aspire.org.uk/Blog/fohzia-and-ghulam)
Some of you already know our dearest Dad (who is now 67) slipped in the snow and suffered a life changing spinal cord injury in January 2013, resulting in becoming a C2 tetraplegic, ventilator dependent. Our gorgeous dad endured an incredible amount of pain, surgery, heartache, upheaval and sadness, long months were spent in intensive care then onto a specialist high dependency spinal unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital for 16 months and then onto temporary accommodation whilst we tried to sell the family home and purchase a new one that could be suitably adapted.
Finally at the end of November 2016, almost 4 years after the fall, we brought Dad home into his specially adapted space where he is surrounded by loved ones.
Despite the angst we gained an incredible strength, deeper love and quite a dark sense of humour! Our dad is and continues to be an inspiration to all of us, his gentle spirit, faith and warm sensitivity in putting others before himself despite his current physical limitations will stay with us for life.
There are tough days but there are also days filled with an immense gratitude to The Divine that we still have him with us sharing precious moments. We would like to do what we can in the precious time we have left with him and this physical tool we feel would help contribute to the physical and mental quality of his day to day life.
He has used the trainer whilst at the Spinal Unit (Stoke Mandeville) and it had an immense uplifting effect on his mental wellbeing in the early days of the injury. If you can spare a contribution (and if not love, blessings, prayers all gratefully received too!) we would be immensely grateful. As a family we are all individually doing what we can offline to fundraise (as an example Nazia has pledged to run a race a month this year - first run below, Hillingdon 10k)
Thank you for stopping by and love, light and heartfelt thanks from The Ahmed Family . We will update this page as and when we complete each fundraising event, so keep checking in lovely people!
