Give Podge a chance
Jul 11 '01
The Bottom Line This one, www.givetheladachance.com, deserves a little of your attention.
Last spring Alfred, or 'Podge' as he prefers to be known, spent the evening playing in a park with some other 12 year old boys. A regular scene, and harmless enough, but what happened was not.
Another local 12 year old poured a can of gas over Podge and immediately set light to him.
Podge suffered third degree burns over 61% of his body. Only the areas covered by his shorts and his boots were undamaged, along with his face which he shielded with his arms. Despite his injuries he survived. He spent 13 weeks in hospital before being released.
Most of his body is covered in artificial skin and as he heads through his teenage years his body will grow, but his skin will not. He is scheduled to have up to 20 operations a year, and is looking at a total approaching 150 operations before his 21st birthday.
The artificial skin means that he can't go outside during the middle of the day. His stomach muscles were burned away, and he only has 12" of bowel so he can't play physically with other children as any knock could result in serious injury.
Despite what has happened Podge retains a remarkably positive attitude to life.
It was his attitude that inspired Bob and Nick to 'give the lad a chance', by running from Lands End to John O'Groats (the southern tip of England to the Northern tip of Scotland, about 880 miles) to raise money to put into trust for Podge.
His courage is inspiring, but his situation is not. Podge has a great family, with five brothers and sisters, and both parents living with him. The city has re homed them in a house with a downstairs toilet. They have also promised a limited private tuition plan.
Had Podge's injuries been caused by a hot cup of Starbucks coffee, or a scalding McDonalds pie, his parents could be confident that they could afford the facilities and support that they need to get him through his childhood, and that there would be sufficient funds to cover his ongoing needs, but because this was a deliberate act by another child there's no financial help available to them.
Podge needs 24 hour care, and he would benefit enormously from a downstairs bathroom or a stairlift. An electric bed would allow him to sit up without help, and proper home tuition would allow him the same right to education that every other kid has.
The 'Give The Lad A Chance' project aims to raise £250,000 ($375,000) to help with his needs (http://www.givetheladachance.com/needs.html#top).
Bob and Nick, the runners, are not super atheletes, although Nick did run across America from San Fransisco to New York in 1999 to raise money for Josie Russell, a girl who survived a hammer attack that her mother and sister did not. They are both somewhat chubby (sorry chaps) forty somethings with families of their own to support. They are each taking six weeks out of their working year to complete the run, and as they both run their own small businesses they have no salary coming in to cover their costs.
The www.givetheladachance.com project needs help, and plenty of it, if they are to reach their goal of giving Podge and his family a shot at as normal a life as possible. Their needs vary from commercial sponsorship, through small donations to people to cheer them on along the route.
They also need any help they can get in raising the profile of the project, and welcome any opportunities to gain contacts in local or national media.
Find out more about Podge: http://www.givetheladachance.com/index.html
Bob & Nick: http://www.givetheladachance.com/runners.html
Check whether you can cheer them on en route: http://www.givetheladachance.com/route.html
Check their sponsorship needs: http://www.givetheladachance.com/help.html
Send cold hard cash! It doesn't need to be UK pounds, but if you have any knocking around then that's great. They'll accept dollars, US or Canadian, and I'm certain they won't turn down any other currency you have left over from European vactations!
http://www.givetheladachance.com/donate.html
If the link doesn't work, search Google for "Give The Lad A Chance".
In case you aren't sure what to do now, you could always visit www.givetheladachance.com.
Thanks to nikkisly who reminded me to write this :)
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