Community steps up to help Worthing family prepare ‘forever home’ for eight-year-old disabled boy

A floor lift and wet room will be put in for them in due course and grants have been applied for, but in the meantime, mum Selina Ragless has turned to the community for help.

She was encouraged to set up a GoFundMe account by friends and family and £330 has been raised since it launched on January 21.

Selina said: “We get the keys February 10 or 11, which gives us 2.5 weeks to get as much as we can done before we have to leave our current home. And without funds, it’s nigh on impossible.

“I have put in requests for grants but those kind of things take months, so GoFundMe is the only way of getting things into place quicker.”

Her son Harry Ragless is well known in Worthing, having raised £6,695 for NHS Charities Together in April last year by walking as far as he could with his frame during lockdown.

Harry has spina bifida and spends around 80 per cent of his time in a wheelchair. His spine did not form properly in the womb and he has neurological damage to his legs and back, so he cannot feel his feet.

Selina said: “Harry is well but his needs change daily. We have been given a three-bedroom house in Tarring, which we are very much in need of for Harry’s disability needs and independence, and also somewhere we can be happy and call our forever home.

“It can be adapted to meet Harry’s needs with things such as a ramp, through the floor lift and such like, for which the occupational therapist will apply for a disabilities grant, but the house is very old and in need of a lot of work, flooring throughout the whole house and a complete regeneration. This is going to be extremely costly.

“We are sourcing ways to hopefully find some grants that may be able to assist us. Many people have asked us to set the GoFundMe page up as they would love to help make this house a home. If anyone would like to help in any which way possible, thank you so, so much.”

Visit www.gofundme.com/f/n5ybr-help-us-make-a-home for more information and to make a donation.

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