Articles written by Mark Borland
It isn’t just powered wheelchairs which can make a massive difference to disabled children and their families. There are many types of mobility equipment that are not available through the NHS because of funding criteria which don’t consider all a child’s recreational needs. Simple pieces of equipment such as buggies can provide a childhood of fun and enjoyment by allowing children to enjoy normal family outings and everyday activities which most of us take for granted.
Codie is 6-year-old is a little girl, with Cerebral Palsy, who received a buggy in March 2009 through the fantastic support of the Priority Trust.
Codie’s Mum had applied to Whizz-Kidz for a buggy so …
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In March 2009 The Priority Trust made a grant of £30,596 to provide mobility equipment to seven children as requested by Newlife Foundation. As of the 15 September 2009 is that all equipment has been delivered. Priority and Newlife are working together to develop feedback on the impact the equipment is having on the children’s lives and this has been received from six of the seven families involved. More updates will follow as information is received, but here are the stories so far:
Imaan is 5 year old girl living in the west of England who has a diagnosis of global developmental delay, microcephaly and epilepsy. She has profound learning disabilities and is unable to communicate verbally. She has disturbed sleep …
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Keira, a three-year old girl has recently been provided with her first powerchair, with the help of Priority. The SnapDragon powerchair, made with her specific requirements in mind will help her develop and be as independent as possible.
In September 2008, when the Occupational Therapist from Dragonmobility first met Keira at the request of Keira’s OT, she was shy, withdrawn and clinging. She had undergone a lot of medical interventions in her short life, and at the age of 2 had a natural tendency to cry and ask for cuddles when presented with anything new.
Keira has an undiagnosed neuromuscular condition which causes severe weakness, particularly in …
Read all of A new power chair for Keira
We are delighted to announce that Priority has funded wheelchairs, buggies and trikes for another ten disabled children. This equipment will make a huge difference to these young people and give them the independence to develop and achieve their potential. The £25,750 grant means that Priority has made grants of £84,500 to fund mobility equipment for 20 children in our first year.
*All names have been changed to protect the individuals concerned
We will be following the progress these children as they receive their equipment and start to enjoy the freedom and change it will bringto their lives.
Once again Priority would like to thank all those who have generously supported our work as we look forward to funding more equipment going forward.
From the very start, the key to Priority’s success was developing a network of influential supporters to help us grow. We started with some of Kieran’s contacts and asked them to help us broaden our support.
To recognise this invaluable support and demonstrate the success we have had in attracting some of the best people in business we have formed the Priority Advisory Board. By joining, the members of this board are demonstrating their implicit support for the cause and the efforts of the trust and will help us to secure wider interest.
Priority is delighted to welcome David Blood, Max Burt, Glenn Earle, Stanley Fink, Stephen Holowesko, Peter Sutherland, John Thornton and Peter Weinberg as founder members of the Priority Advisory …
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The idea behind Priority was to use Kieran Prior’s experience of pushing boundaries as the inspiration to raise funds and provide more disabled children with the right mobility equipment. We set out to build a group of supporters from the banking and business world who could help make a real change.
We were both aware of the lack of funding for the right wheelchairs that give disabled children their independence (see Why Priority). Priority evolved to provide a simple and effective way of bringing new funding to this issue and 18 months later we’ve funded equipment for 22 children.
So why the Priority Blog?
Well if Kieran’s experience is our inspiration, …
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Do you have an experience of disability that you’d like to share? If so, please leave us a comment in the box below. We’d love to hear from you!
The Priority Trust has made its first grant of £52,750 to fund mobility equipment for the nine physically disabled children listed below. Over the coming months the children and young people will receive equipment that specifically meets their everyday needs and will give them greater freedom and independence.
This is a huge milestone for Priority that we intend to build on, supporting more disabled children as effectively as we can. The grant of £52,750 has been made to Whizz-Kidz with whom we are working in partnership and all the funds will be spent on the mobility equipment.
*All names have been changed to protect the individuals concerned
We will be keeping in touch with Whizz-Kidz to track progress with the delivery of the …
Read all of Priority’s first grant funds nine disabled children
We are delighted to announce that academy award winning actor, Daniel Day-Lewis has agreed to become patron of the Priority Trust. It is a significant achievement for the Trust to secure the support of such an accomplished and well regarded professional who has great empathy with our cause:
“In 1989 when working on the film MY LEFT FOOT in which I played the writer Christy Brown, I became acutely aware of the monumental difficulties facing physically disabled children, both every day and in growing up to be who they wanted to be.
Today there are still many thousands of disabled children who do not have the right mobility equipment that will give them the independence to achieve their potential. In Kieran Prior, the …
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How do you ensure your website is accessible to all? This should be important for every organisation publishing a website, but particularly for Priority as our purpose is to support disabled people.
However the answer is less obvious and asking a variety of web developers what guidelines exist and what standards need to be met, produced a variety of answers. Most pointed us to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendations, which provide best practice for most websites. These then suggest compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). However, once you’ve got this far, you find that there are 3 levels of compliance (A, AA, AAA). So which do you go for?
To find a solution, Priority enlisted the help of …
Read all of Commissioning an accessible website
Codie is 6-year-old is a little girl, with Cerebral Palsy, who received a buggy in March 2009 through the fantastic support of the Priority Trust.