Ana-Lily and her family are as excited as we are at Sullivan’s Heroes, now that ‘Ana-Lily’s Home Adaptations’ are completed and in use by the 11-year-old.
Costs of the project required Ana-Lily’s family to raise £50,000 above the Disabled Facilities Grant awarded for the works – to undertake major adaptations to Ana-Lily’s home to enable her medical and care needs to be met.
Ana-Lily’s Dad enlightens us on the issues the family faced prior to the works:
“As Ana-Lily was growing, it was becoming more difficult to manage her at home without the need for adaptations and additional space for all of her equipment and medical supplies."
“Ana-Lily’s home was in need of major adaptations in order to meet her needs in a more manageable way. She needed a new bedroom, wet room, hoist, through floor lift, more living space and lots of storage for her equipment and medical supplies! Each piece of equipment for her sitting, standing and other positional needs gets bigger too. The family home had run out of space!”
Once the target funds were raised – with the support of external organisations donating funds via Sullivan’s Heroes direct to Ana-Lily’s fund, together with the family carrying out fundraising – works on the 2-storey extension got underway.
A first-floor bedroom and adjoining wetroom extension was built for Ana-Lily with ceiling hoists throughout and direct access to her parents’ bedroom for overnight care requirements.
A through-floor lift which accommodates a carer to travel with Ana-Lily was installed; plus additional living space with accessible kitchen and family areas and storage space created for medical equipment and supplies.
Adaptations were also made outside to enable level access for Ana-Lily to the front and rear of her home, by building a car port and covered hardstanding area to provide close access to the house.
As Ana-Lily’s Dad advises, now the works are completed:
“The ceiling hoists in the sitting room and her bedroom make transferring her from her chairs/equipment to her changing bed and bed in her bedroom much easier and safer. The additional space in the living areas, wheelchair access to front and back of the house have made our home much more appropriate for Ana-Lily.”
Ana-Lily’s Dad also gives us some insight on how Sullivan’s Heroes helped the family on their journey through the adaptations process:
“Sullivan's Heroes gave us hope. That there was a charity for families like us who face the issue of needing work done to our home to accommodate the needs of a complex child, and the local authority grant does not cover what is needed. We also gained the support of Sullivan’s Heroes to apply to and receive from several other sources/charities.”
“Sullivan’s Heroes helped us reach our goal by providing full and regular contact and support through emails, phone calls and administrative work on our behalf. Sullivan’s Heroes helped to ‘streamline’ all the many areas into which we were looking for support.”
Ana-Lily’s Dad continues, detailing how the charity provides support to families facing home adaptations:
“Sullivan’s Heroes gives families a firm and credible ‘foundation’ from which to begin to fundraise. Sullivan’s Heroes is a highly organised and well-structured charity, through which families are able to learn best ways of raising money and find out about many other sources about which they may not have known anything.
We are so pleased at Sullivan’s Heroes to see Ana-Lily’s family’s hard work come to fruition, with these brilliant results seen here, and conclude with these kind and thoughtful words from her Dad:
“Since first hearing about Sullivan’s Heroes and the initial contact with Fiona Smith, our experience with Sullivan’s Heroes has been extremely positive and beneficial. Not only the practical support of raising funds but the friendly, approachable nature and empathy of the charity have made this process one which has been very positive.”
“Our home is now a much happier home for everyone. Ana-Lily now has her own ‘space’ when she needs time to relax on her own – as a family we also have space for our own use of that of visitors to our home. We have storage space for the many single use syringes, feeding sets and medical supplies that used to take up our kitchen!”
View the fundraising page for ‘Ana-Lily’s Home Adaptations’ here.
