Thanks to CHIPS Charity and the joint fundraising efforts of customers and staff at Beacon Bingo in Cricklewood, 12-year-old Sophia Ghani has been presented with a new powered wheelchair, which will give her more independence and the chance to improve her social skills and spend more time with friends.
Sophia, who lives in Luton with her parents, Zarina & Zak, and siblings, Adam and Amber, suffers with dystonic spastic Cerebral Palsy. The condition means Sophia has altered muscle tone throughout her body, weakness in her trunk, arms and legs and needs specialised seating to give her the correct support.
Sophia’s mum, Zarina, said: “Due to the support Sophia needs, she always has an attendant controlled wheelchair when she’s at home, school and around the community. This really limits her independence and chance to meet with friends. Her condition affects her life every day, but with this new powered wheelchair she will be able to control it herself and hugely increase her independence. We were so proud when she was able to control it straight away! We’re so thankful to CHIPS and Beacon Bingo for this wheelchair; it will be truly life changing.”
Beacon Bingo Cricklewood venue manager, Stephen Young, said: “It’s such a proud moment to know that our fundraising efforts are going to make such a huge difference to Sophia and her family’s life. She’s such a lovely young woman who thoroughly deserves this powered wheelchair.”
One of the co-founders of CHIPS charity Linda Lindsay said: “It is so important for CHIPS that our donors see the results of their hard work, and we try to ensure that all the recipients are local to where the funds have been raised. Cashino and parent company Praesepe have been amazing, and have donated £1.2 million allowing CHIPS to provide more than 150 wheelchairs up and down the country.”
In total CHIPS has raised more than £2.2 million to date and presented over 520 wheelchairs to children throughout the UK.
