Generous mobility aid donation lifts patient’s spirits

A Community Palliative Care Team in Harrow has been able to help one of its patients overcome a major hurdle by teaming up with Yorkshire-based Acorn Stairlifts.

At just 26, Tixie was diagnosed with an advanced and spreading form of cancer which has caused extensive damage to her lungs, affecting her mobility. Before the diagnosis, Tixie was living independently and enjoying her job, but declining health forced her to move back in with her parents, who have given up work to care for her.

As Tixie’s condition is palliative, spending quality time with her family is imperative, but there was still a big problem. Tixie’s condition leaves her extremely breathless and climbing the stairs in her parents’ home was impossible.

Kerry Wloskowicz, a Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist from the Harrow Community Palliative Care Team, explained: “Tixie finds it a huge challenge to get up and down stairs and this meant she was upstairs in her home all the time. She wanted to be able to sit downstairs with her family, not be confined to her room where she was feeling isolated, frustrated and had no freedom.”

Staff from the Harrow Community Team do all they can to optimise Tixie’s quality of life, but they couldn’t overcome the hurdle of the stairs on their own. Instead, they turned to Acorn Stairlifts with a heartfelt plea for help.

“A stairlift was the obvious solution,” said Kerry, “but Tixie’s family just don’t have the funds to get one installed as they haven’t worked for so long.”

On hearing Tixie’s story, staff at Acorn knew they could help and offered to install one of their stairlifts free of charge, getting the job done within a few days of the Harrow team’s request.

Acorn Stairlifts’ Gareth Deegan said: “As a company we already have a national partnership with the Marie Curie charity, installing stairlifts so people cared for by their hospices can remain living at home for as long as possible.

“We were more than happy to work with the team in Harrow on a similar basis, so that Tixie can enjoy a better life at home with her parents and go up and down the stairs whenever she likes.”