Veterans and businesses join together to fund new specialist buggy for young Morecambe woman

Paul Batty, who volunteers for the forces charity SSAFA, organised funding for the daughter of former Royal Engineer Georgina White, whose daughter Emily has mobility and cognitive disabilities.

Emily’s specialist wheelchair had unfortunately broken down beyond repair, and a replacement had to be ordered from the USA, which cost almost £3,500.

Paul managed to secure around £3,000 from three businessmen, with the other £500 given by the charity SSAFA.

Georgina looks after her daughter Emily, who has the same inherited heart/liver condition which Georgina’s late husband Keith – who was in the Fusiliers – had.

Emily, 21, can take medication to help this condition, though she also has Down Syndrome and autism.

She is moderately deaf and wears bone anchored hearing aids. She has hyper mobility, which affects her walking and some sight loss. She spends a lot of time in hospital with infections.

She has had more than 20 operations to improve her airways and clean out her ears, to try and stop some of the infections.

“I have had to fight for everything for Emily over the years, from special shoes to schools and college,” Georgina said.

"I have fundraised for all her specialist equipment and hearing aid accessories that she needed to communicate with us.

“I have had her old buggy for 10 years and it had started to fall apart. Unfortunately my health has not been great over the last couple of years and I’ve needed a few operations myself.

“Because of this I was no longer in a position to fundraise for a new buggy. I belong to Bay Veterans Association and that is where I met Paul, who was volunteering for SSAFA.

"Paul and two friends Mike and Andreas contributed the majority of the funds required to purchase the buggy, with the forces charity SSAFA agreeing to pick up the balance.

“Without this help, Emily would not be able to access the outside world.

“She relies on the buggy as a safe space for her autism. Also to help with her hyper mobility. She can go to the beach and camping again.

“They have helped to give us back our freedom as a family and we shall be forever grateful to them and SSAFA.”