Kirkby Malzeard supports girl’s £19,000 wheelchair appeal

Ellie Renton wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up and a new wheelchair can help her along the road to achieving that ambition.

Now, villagers in Kirkby Malzeard and the surrounding area are rallying round to make it happen.

The 10-year-old, who is a pupil at Kirkby Malzeard C of E Primary School, has just sat her eleven-plus exam and hopes to follow her older brother William to Ripon Grammar School.

Ellie is keen on sports and competes in the national league as a winger for Middlesbrough Powerchair Football Club.

She is also creative, musical, plays computer games with William and is academic, with art, science and maths among her favourite subjects.

What stands in the way of Ellie making further progress when she goes to secondary school is mobility and the need to be able to take part in lessons at the same desk level as her classmates.

Photo of Ellie Renton by the plant stall being run by Kirkby in Bloom

Ellie sits besides the fundraising plant stall run by Pam Collins, of Kirkby in Bloom

She was diagnosed with type 2 spinal muscular atrophy when she was 18-months-old and has been reliant on having a specialist wheelchair throughout her first five years at school.

Ellie has outgrown the chair she currently uses and her parents, Yvonne and Martin, with the support of villagers in Kirkby Malzeard, their family and the wider community, are responding to an appeal for help.

Donations to the Keeping Ellie Mobile appeal, combined with a £5,300 voucher from NHS Wheelchair Services means £11,000 of the £19,000 has been raised towards the purchase of a Permobil F3 electric chair.

Mrs Renton told the Stray Ferret:

“We launched the appeal last November and would like to thank everybody that has helped us so far.

“The covid pandemic has made fundraising difficult, but we are determined to raise the £8,000 we still need as soon as possible.”

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Village support has included the sale of potted plants by Pam Collins, of Kirkby in Bloom, and a further boost came when Ellie’s grandmother, Margaret Renton, who lives in Ripon, sold valuable coins including a gold Krugerrand at auction.

Coin sale

Money from the sale of the coins will take the appeal total to £11,000, giving hope that the chair, which has an adjustable height mechanism allowing Ellie to sit at a desk or table, can be purchased well in advance of next autumn.

She is already looking ahead to university and said:

“I eventually want to study marine biology, because I am worried about the creatures in the oceans and want to be able to do something to help them.”

Further details about Ellie’s wheelchair appeal can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/keeping-ellie-mobile