Nine-year-old girl's life-changing wheelchair | Times Reports

The Times and Sunday Times Christmas appeal raised more than £2.1 million for a trio of good causes at home and abroad. Whizz Kids provides wheelchairs to some of the 75,000 children in the UK who need them and often struggle to get help from the NHS — many under-fives are not eligible for mobility aids. Annabel French loves learning about world records. She has only been in her new wheelchair for a few minutes when an ambition starts forming. “Time me!” she says, challenging her mother and the rest of the people at the WhizzKidz wheelchair clinic to count how many times she can spin around in a minute. “I don’t think there’s a world record yet for how many times you can spin in a wheelchair.” Dizzy and delighted, she manages 15 — a feat that would have been unthinkable in the slow, heavy wheelchair she was struggling with until now. The nine-year-old suffers from pain and stiffness in her joints as a result of hypermobility, as well as abnormally low muscle tone. It means that ­although she can walk very short distances, she must rely on a wheelchair at least part of the time otherwise she is “wiped out”, according to her mother Suzanne, a teacher. To donate visit thetimes.co.uk/christmasappeal or call 0151 284 2336 and let’s try to beat last year’s wonderful total. Read the best of our journalism: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ Subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_... Find us on Facebook:   / timesandsundaytimes   Find us on Twitter:   / thetimes   Find us on Instagram:   / thetimes   #disability #wheelchair #charity #children