By ANEEKA SIMONIS
HAVING taken her first solo steps just a few weeks ago, five-year-old Mount Evelyn resident Amy Dunbar has set out to prove that her disorder is not going to hold her back.
Suffering from the movement disorder cerebral palsy, doctors suspected that Amy would never achieve such independence, but with community backing she is already reaching unbelievable heights.
Amy made her first major achievement in 2010 after she received her community-funded Second Skin Body Suit.
For the first time, the suit enabled Amy to sit upright unaided, completely changing her perception of her surroundings and eventually allowing her to crawl.
“Amy has made remarkable changes in her development … her interest in the world around her has dramatically changed for the better,” mum Leonie Dunbar said.
Amy’s improved posture also allowed her to start eating solid foods to which was a major relief for Leonie, who was told Amy was in danger of having a PEG feeding tube inserted into her stomach.
But as wondrous as the suit is, it doesn’t grow with Amy.
I Give A Buck Foundation is helping raise funds to provide Amy with her fourth suit along with a supportive chair, totalling $3224.
Leonie said community donations had changed Amy’s quality of life and that she would not have made such great physical achievements without them.
“The support and contributions from people have really made a difference in my little girl’s life,” she said.
Travel has also been a tricky situation for Amy who has outgrown her car seat. Yet, Britax, a children’s travel-safe manufacturer has already donated a size appropriate car seat for Amy.
Amy attends Croydon Special Development School and has just started an intensive physical and educational training program at home with her mother.
Following a Philadelphia-based development program by the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential, Leonie said her daughter’s condition had already significantly improved and believed it would continue to do so.
If you would like to help fund Amy’s equipment costs, visit igiveabuck.org.au.
