Special Donation Made to Ballinasloe Girl, Emma Campbell

Hi Guys… Please take a second to read…

You never know what twists and turns your life will take and on Sunday the 22nd of March having just completed the Miles for Emma https://www.facebook.com/milesforemma  Special journey for Special Needs walk from Ballinasloe to Dublin in Aid of Temple Street Children’s Hospital that was to become very apparent to me...
That evening I headed to Gibbons Pillar House to celebrate our successful journey with fellow walkers when I was introduced to a Gentleman called Tom Hatcher from Oklahoma City, USA, Tom and his Wife Hillary who is originally from Ballinasloe where there with family members enjoying an evening out, Kathryn Gibbons who introduced me to Tom had been telling them about Miles for Emma and my campaign to promote Equality and awareness for all Children with Special Needs and basically what we were doing and why we were doing it… Tom Informed Kathryn that he was involved with a Group in the USA called AMBUCS http://www.ambucs.org Creating Mobility & Independence for People with Disabilities and Special needs through AmTrykes http://www.amtrykestore.org/about.html 

Amtryke, LLC is fully owned and operated by National AMBUCS, Inc.  a nationwide 501c3 non-profit charity dedicated to creating mobility and independence for people with disabilities and believe the fun and freedom of riding your own bike is something everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy. People who are unable to operate a traditional bike can now share this experience, thanks to the Amtryke therapeutic tricycle.These unique trykes are designed to accommodate riders of all ages and a myriad of physical and/or developmental challenges.

After the introductions were made and having spoken to Tom for a short period of time he informed me that through AMBUCS they would like to send Emma a specially adapted Trike Free of Charge… As you can appreciate I was definitely taken aback by this very generous offer one that I knew would both enhance and benefit Emma’s life in so many ways… to be honest I was in shock, the fact that I didn’t know this person from Adam and more so the fact he wanted to send us a state of the art Trike from AmTryke in the USA left me dumbfounded. I’d safely say I asked Tom the Same Question about 5 times… “You want to send my little Girl Emma a specially adapted Trike for Free..?? From the USA..?? to which Tom replied every time “YES”

Emma’s condition, Succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase deficiency SSADHD is a disorder that can cause a variety of neurological problems. Emma has developmental delay, especially involving speech development; (Emma is non-verbal) intellectual disability; and decreased muscle tone (hypotonia) poor fine and gross motor skills. Emma can experience seizures, difficulty coordinating movements (ataxia), decreased reflexes (hyporeflexia),

Anyway all he needed was my e-mail and he would start the ball rolling as soon as he got home to the United States… within a few weeks I’d received an E-mail and we started the process of selecting the Trike best suited to Emma, filling out physiotherapist reports and basically dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s Once this was sorted and all the paper work was sent off we received notification from the USA that everything was now in place and that Emma’s new Specially adapted trike would be shipped in the coming weeks…

Well the Good news is those weeks have now elapsed and on Friday we took delivery of what can only be described as a life changing gift… Emma’s very own Trike… We had a few reservations that Emma may be a little reluctant and that we would struggle to get her to sit on it or use it in anyway… Well it turns out we’ll have more trouble keeping her off it… Once it was assembled and adjusted to her size she was all over it… She loves the fact it’s her trike, she loves her pink AmTryke Helmet and most of all she loves putting all her dolly’s and teddy’s in the basket which is attached to the back of her lovely new Trike and been pushed around… as the trike moves her legs move so she gets the sense of pedalling… Her steering still needs a lot of work but crashing into things seems to add to the fun.

At this Point on behalf of my wife Michelle and family and especially Emma I’d like to thank Tom & Hillary and all at AMBUCS & AmTrykes members who made this possible… You have changed a little Irish girl’s life in so many ways..!!!

​Forever grateful guys..!! 
Ken Campbell