I am pleased to report that I have now ordered the Invacare Esprit Action 4 Junior powered wheelchair for my son.
NRS Healthcare, which handles the NHS contribution towards the wheelchair, went bust in late July, just weeks after my son and I had given up a morning to go see them. It has proven impossible to get a reply from anyone since, either at NRS Healthcare or at Millbrook Healthcare, which supposedly took over their services.
In the end, we decided to go ahead and order the wheelchair without the NHS contribution. We don’t want to wait indefinitely, we want the chair now, and thanks to the astonishing generosity of the public, we are in a position to purchase it.
The sales receipt can be seen below. We took a couple of items off the original invoice, which we decided were unnecessary. Even so, the total cost easily exceeded the £4,000 I had originally anticipated.
The crowd funder I set up last month smashed that target and is due to close in a day or two.
Once again, I want to say how grateful my family is for the public’s incredible support. Living with disability is costly in all kinds of ways, including financial, and the powered wheelchair is just one example of that.
The next tranche of the money will be spent on an advance payment for a Motability vehicle in the coming months. I anticipate it will be in the region of £2,500-£3,500 based on current prices.
Further down the road, as I mentioned before, we will be looking at necessary home adaptations, and they will more than swallow up the remainder of the money raised.
Thank you once again to everyone who contributed to help my son. The powered wheelchair is sure to make an enormous difference to his life, and indeed to the rest of the family.
Update September 8, 2025: Final Figures
Below are the final figures from the crowd funder. An astonishing £15,000 was raised, of which £14,444.85 goes to my son.
Thank you to all who contributed!
