Travelling just 40 metres across Willow Park in Wodonga, Kylie Paull’s wheelchair loses a chunk of charge.
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The chair’s dwindling power is just one of the reasons she needs help to raise $5000 in order to replace it.
“Last year, the serviceman said, ‘Kylie, you need to get onto the occupational therapist, because this needs to be replaced’,” she said.
“It doesn’t go up hills anymore, some gutters I just can’t do, and I get shocked from it all the time.”
Mrs Paull, who was been in a wheelchair since 2009, lost her right leg to a degenerative bone disease in 2014 and may be facing the same fate with her other foot.
“I had scans done just before Christmas, and the surgeon at Wangaratta rang me last week and said, ‘Look, it’s a bit of a mess’,” she said.
“He’s hoping they can do surgery, but they’ve just told me to keep it in the back of my mind in case they can’t do anything.
“It’s not nice, but I’m prepared for it and I know I can do it – I’ve got this far with this one.”
The new wheelchair is also needed to provide the right support in the case she becomes a double-amputee and costs $17,000 in total, funded in-part by the State-wide Equipment Program.
To be able to get on a waiting list for the chair, Mrs Paull needs to come up with a $7000 deposit.
“We want to supply as much as we can – we know there’s so many people in the same situation,” she said.
“There needs to be more affordable options like a payment-plan, even if you’ve got to put down $1000, that would be more reachable.”
Mrs Paull said she “couldn’t do without” her current wheelchair, but was excited about the thought of no longer being restricted by it.
“I want to be able to go anywhere we want to go and get that bit of freedom back,” she said.
“Even just to go down the street, there’s been several times we’ve had to get a taxi back home, because the battery went flat.”
Mrs Paull’s full-time carer and husband, Chris, said his wife was well-known on the Border for decorating her chair every Christmas.
Mr Paull urged residents to help however they could.
“She’s a very caring person, honest, truthful, she’d do anything for anyone - and she does,” he said.
“She deserves as much help as she can get.”
Donate at www.mycause.com.au/page/117362/help-kylie-get-a-wheelchair.