We have recently asked parents who attend our courses for stories on how the course as benefited their children.

The AWC has transformed the life of our grand-daughter Rebecca.
Rebecca is a charming and cheerful 7 year old with a steely determination to be independent. However, when she was first born 20 weeks premature, she was diagnosed with Sacral Agenesis. As a toddler, it was evident that although Becky could stand and walk for a short time, she would be in a wheelchair from school age onwards.
Our local authority provided Becky with her first chair but that's where their input stopped. She settled into an excellent mainstream primary school, but missed out on so much because she was 'confined' to a wheelchair. As luck would have it, we live in the same street as Owen McGhee, the Chief Executive of AWC. He noticed Rebecca coming into our house one day and posted details of AWC and their local wheelchair courses through our letterbox. Until that moment, the wheelchair had been seen as a means of transporting Rebecca from A to B with the least possible stress and strain to the adults in her life. After reading the brochure it was clear that AWC could offer us advice on what was best for Rebecca and, more importantly, it would give her an opportunity to work and play with other wheelchair-using children.
We attended the next local session where Rebecca had a life-changing two days. She was loaned a different type of chair which allowed her to take control of her own mobility. She joined in all the lessons and games and after day 1 was delighted that she could be independent and in control.
There is no simple way to define the transformation to Becky's life that attending this course provided.
Perhaps the most important thing to the adults in the family was the extra knowledge we gained by talking to Owen and his team. The most revealing thing for us was that by getting the right kind of wheelchair we could help Becky achieve independence and mobility, two things that were in short supply until then.
Being able to discuss strategies and ideas which would lift Rebecca from being a 'child in a wheelchair' into a wheelchair-using child has enhanced all of our lives, but particularly
Becky's.
There is no finer testimony to the work of AWC than to see Rebecca out and about.