Freddie van der Walt is a quadriplegic, he is in need of a new motorised wheelchair. His community have started helping by raising funds towards the R165K needed.
Freddie van der Walt is a resident of the Eric Miles Cheshire Home in the Western Cape. He is a tetraplegic, also known as quadriplegic, and has been chair bound for the last 21 years. The wheelchair Freddie uses allows him mobility by the use of a control board and a directional joy stick that he operates with his chin and mouth.
Recently Freddie started a campaign to help raise funds for a new chair. The chair required to live normally is a massive financial burden, nearly R165,000.00 to exact, an amount Freddie cannot cover alone. His current chair is 16 years old and slowly breaking down, it needs to be replaced as it is no longer manufactured, so there are no spare parts.
“I just got to the point where I decided to embrace this. Falling apart won’t do. This wheelchair gives me independence. You’ve got a problem when you’re confined to your bed.”
Freddie started a crowdfunding page on Just Giving and people from all over the world have already raised over 15K towards his new wheelchair. Locally Freddie has a Facebook page that he uses to auction items that have been donated to him or to host raffles.
Member’s of the community have also made private donations and the local high school, Table View High donated R5,000.00 to his fund as well. The community has helped raise an additional R32,688.34 to go towards the R 165,000.00
A BIG thank you for the generous donation of R5000.00 from Table View High School. We appreciate your support and kindness
There is still a large number to raise so if you are wanting to help Freddie you can head over to his crowdfund or here is the information for private donations via bank deposit.