Appeal
Cavan has recently been featured as both Burnley Express front page news and the main story on Granada ITV news, and in other written publications as well as the radio (2BR).
He has a condition with odds of 400 BILLION : 1. That is 60 times the world population.
Cavan John Kirkham-MacCallum is currently 11month old. Cavan has crucial bones missing from all of his limbs and suffers from a rare disorder named Hemimelia. There is not a registered charity anywhere that can offer help or assistance for this. He will never walk as we do. He currently needs a minimum of 8 years of intensive, new surgery that is not easily available in the UK, or amputation of limbs.
As a family we are no longer able to work as Cavan now dictates daily hospital visits and treatments throughout the country. There is no help available from the government in our situation. We desperately need suitable adapted housing that cannot be provided as the council either have no housing stock for the disabled or the waiting lists are too long. The same problem lies with other social housing. Neither can we rent property privately as this would render the property inadaptable for his needs.
We cannot claim Disability living allowance benefit for mobility, for over another two years as legislation states that all children of this age are the same regardless of disability.
We do not receive nor may we apply for transportation help with costs for UK wide hospital visits.
Cavan will also need prosthetic limbs. The NHS only provide limited time fittings and children only make up for 3% of the national average amputees and there have been recent government funding cut backs to the centres that provide this. The NHS will NOT provide what they deem as ‘special artificial limbs’ which will enable Cavan to partake in normal activities such as swimming etc.
I am now pleading for your help. I never thought or dreamed that I would do this but a mother must do all she can to provide for her children against the odds. I can not tell him we did not try. I really need funding to enable us to live in adapted suitable accommodation with support and so that I can provide the prosthetic limbs he needs to live an everyday life to some normality.
If you can help, offer assistance or fundraise in any way at all then please do not hesitate to contact me on the above.
Many Thanks
Bernadette Kirkham-MacCallum