Father of Kells boy who suffered stroke at birth says specially adapted vehicle would be "life changing"

The frustrated father of a boy with special needs from Kells who suffered a stroke at birth and needs 24-hour care says raising enough money to buy a specially adapted vehicle for his son would be “life changing.”

David Butler and Maria Reynold's son Bear (8) devastatingly suffered a stroke at birth which resulted in him developing Cerebral Palsy. The youngster who is in constant pain on a daily basis has also been diagnosed with epilepsy and autism and is unable to walk.

As his condition is deteriorating, Bear can no longer use a manual wheelchair and has had to upgrade to a powered wheelchair in order to get around. Unfortunately, now he also needs a specially adapted wheelchair accessible vehicle for transport.

Due to the nature of Bear's disability, these specialist custom adaptations on a vehicle for Bear's cost a staggering €60,000 but unfortunately without them, Bear will be stuck at home with no means of getting out and about.

David who is a full time carer for Bear along with Bear’s mum Maria has set up this page and is appealing to the goodwill of everyone to try and help out and get Bear mobile. He said:

“We set up the GoFundMe page which is quite out of character for us, we don’t like asking people for money. We are quite private people but it’s important for us to share Bear’s story otherwise he will be a prisoner in his own home.

“We live quite rurally in Kilbeg eight miles outside Kells so we are very isolated, there is no public transport and the vehicle we have at the moment is not suitable.”

Loving dad David says it is “heartbreaking” to watch his child in pain,” he added:

“Bear also suffers from epilepsy and has seizures, he is on the autism spectrum and has visual and hearing impairments.

“He is in pain constantly 24 hours a day so he is on a lot of pain relief. He has seizures and he limited because he can’t walk and only has the use of one arm.

“In order to transport him visiting family even for hospital appointments and therapies we have to visit Temple street in Dublin and Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda quite often and have no suitable transport.

“If Bear was enrolled in a school they could apply for funding for a specially adapted mini bus or adaptions in the classroom but because he is home schooled we have been cut out of the loop completely in terms of supports.

“It would be life changing for us to have a suitable vehicle so he could try and live a normal life and even for mental health reasons. We haven’t seen family for over a year now due to covid but once things open up we will still essentially be in lockdown.

“It's heartbreaking because everyday is a struggle as Bear is in quite a lot of pain due to his disability, and as a parent it's so hard to watch. Both myself and Bear’s mum wish for nothing more than to take all his pain away even if it meant we would have the pain ourselves instead.

“Struggling with everyday tasks that most children would take for granted is especially difficult and even after eight years, it doesn't become any less painful, in fact it’s the opposite.”

There were no indications that anything was wrong prior to Bear’s birth as David explains:

“When Bear was born we knew that something wasn’t quite right. The first few weeks of check ups when we voiced our concerns to the doctors we were just fobbed off then at seven months old he had proper MRIs and various different scans where it was discovered that he had a stroke at birth and was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy.

“It was absolutely devastating for any parent to hear those words but at the same time we had an inkling it wasn’t a complete shock; we had done our research but when you are sitting in a doctor’s office hearing it from across the table it is a shock.

“Although the primary goal for the GoFundMe appeal is to obtain suitable and essential transport for Bear to help with his daily life, it's also to try and improve his quality of life as he's been through so much already that no one let alone a child should have to go through.

“Everyday is a fight to get any kind of support or even basic services and it gets harder and harder. We are not alone in this as parents with a child with a disability you are kind of left behind.”

“Bear loves being on his tablet, he also loves music and is a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen and George Ezra, he loves arts and crafts. He will never ride a bike, he will never play football but he loves life and he is an amazing little warrior.”

Search "Help Bear get mobility transport" on GoFundMe to help Bear get mobile.