Thanks to CHIPS Charity and the joint fundraising efforts of customers and staff at Cashino Halifax in West Yorkshire, 10-year-old Ivy Wright has been presented with a brand new powered wheelchair, which will allow her to move around independently at school and spend more time with her friends.
Cashino, which operates 160 adult gaming centres across the country, is one of the main fundraisers for CHIPS, a charity set up on behalf of the casino and gaming industry, which provides specialised wheelchairs for children with severe mobility problems.
Ivy lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire with her mum and dad, Dayle and Daniel, and older sister Mollie.
Ivy’s mum, Dayle, said: “Due to her condition, Ivy can only walk short distances with the aid of a ‘walker’, but she still tires very easily. As she gets older the condition will only get worse, so it’s really important that we give her as much help as we can. We live in a very hilly area, so the manual wheelchair causes Ivy to tire easily. We’re so thankful to Cashino and CHIPS for this wheelchair.”
Cashino Halifax venue manager, Liz, said: “It’s such a proud moment to know that our fundraising efforts are going to make such a huge difference to Ivy and her family’s life. She’s such a lovely, friendly and intelligent girl 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.