We felt that more specialised power chairs, currently not provided by the NHS, would help to make life better for the children and their families. We want to help children that have been wheelchair dependant for some time as well as helping those children who are starting out with the disorder to get the most out of life.

It is our aim to raise funds at a local level for those most in need at Yorkhill, to give them what we feel all children deserve, i.e. comfort, independance and enjoyment. Our objective is to provide help in an integrated way, not merely providing wheelchairs but working to ensure the infrastructure behind them is in place so families are not left with an expensive piece of equipment and no back up support.

Yorkhill Muscle Fund believes that the future lies in working in partnership with the NHS to improve the quality of service provision to the children and their families.

Partnerships

Many people would say this service should be provided by the NHS and, in theory, they would be right. That is something we are also working on, but it is, at present, a political minefield. The reality is that the problems involved are very complex and greater than mere funding. They include limited availability of trained staff, lack of support infrastructure, NHS recruitment policy, etc.

We want to help the children, here and now, to be proactive in getting specialist powered wheelchairs out to the children and young people as quickly as we can raise the money, whilst simultaneously working with the West of Scotland Paediatric Consultation Group, Wheelchair Services and the Scottish Executive to make improvements in the future.

The fund has been set up in partnership with Yorkhill Hospital, the Scottish Muscle Network and Westmarc (West of Scotland Wheelchair Services), and has established a protocol whereby children are selected according to greatest need as determined by Yorkhill clinicians.