[WATCH] Wheels of fortune: Generous donors gift disabled boy stuck at home with a wheelchair
APPEAL: Viral Facebook post
A 12-year-old laaitie is having a wheely good time thanks to donors who came to his aid after his heartbreaking plea for a new wheelchair went viral on social media.
Salamudeen Hendricks, of Lentegeur, skelmpies took his mother’s phone and posted a plea for a folding wheelchair on Facebook.
The Grade 5 pupil from Agape Special Needs School says he was dik of being stuck at home as his wheelchair could not fit into a taxi or car.
The cute boytjie was born with spina bifida and has a Chiari malformation, hydrocephalus, syringomyelia and kyphoscoliosis which has rendered him paralysed from the waist down.
Born as half of a set of twins, Salamudeen needs constant care but is fighting to be more independent.
“Don’t you have a folding wheelchair for me for travelling. I also want to go out to places.
“My wheelchair can’t fold into a taxi or bus. I am so bored I have nothing to do or keep me busy.
“I don’t have a phone, no games to play.
“I have nothing. I am so bored, bored, bored,” he wrote on Facebook along with a picture of himself and his mother’s phone number.
The post was shared hundreds of times without mom Salama, 45, knowing.
“I don’t really go on Facebook and got a skrik when my friends contacted me.
“I never thought of it and he just did it out of his own out of frustration,” she says.
“He comes home from school and watches the other children playing in the road.
“We could not afford a folding wheelchair and all he ever wants to do is go to Green Point Urban Park or the beach but because the chair doesn’t fold we cannot board a taxi or bus.
“His siblings also suffer because we cannot have any family outings.”
Roy Cheek of the Claremont Rotary Club says the post touched their hearts after it was shared by one of their members and they immediately jumped in to help.
“This is what we as a club do and we were very sad when we saw this young child being so sad,” he says.
“We arranged to meet his mom at Red Cross Children’s Hospital and handed it over.”
When Salamudeen arrived home from school on Wednesday he couldn’t stop smiling as his excited mom showed him his new wheelchair and he immediately took it for a spin.