Scottish Catholic Observer

Nicola McAnena, 11, a pupil at St Joachim’s Primary School in Carmyle, Glasgow, has osteogenesis imperfecta, a bone disorder which leaves her prone to fractures, meaning she spends much of her time in an NHS-provided wheelchair.

With the P7 pupil preparing to move to St Andrew’s Secondary School in August, Nicola’s family have set up an online fundraiser in hopes of raising enough money to buy a height adjustable wheelchair.

“This new one will let her be more sociable because she will be eye level with her friends,” Nicola’s mum Tracy said. “And it goes down to the ground so it gives her a bit more independence because it allows her to get off.

“Everybody talks down to her so it’d be good her being at the same eye level as someone else. I don’t know about you, but I feel maybe quite intimidated if I sit in a seat and someone is speaking down to me so if she’s got that constantly…

“Sometimes when she is down that low I find that people talk over the top of her as if she is not there and ask me questions about her and I say ‘well she is there; you can ask her yourself.’ So I’m hoping this is going to break a couple of barriers for her.”

Nicola was born with a broken leg and has broken more than 100 bones over her lifetime, including a fractured skull.

Two years ago she had a major operation on her spine.

“The wee soul has been through the wars but to be fair she has always got a smile on her face,” Mrs McAnena, a parishioner of St Paul’s in

Shettleston, said. “She is such a cheery wee soul. She’s got a brilliant nature but she has her ups and down; she does have her days when she is angry with everyone and ‘its not fair,’ as you can imagine she would, but she more or less just gets up and gets on with life. To think of the pain and the suffering she is going through—you wouldn’t think it to see her.

“She is very sociable and not shy one bit; she likes to take part in everything going. She has got a great wee crowd of friends. They are just fantastic; they watch her, even the boys. It’s quite funny—when she started school the first birthday party she went to, obviously there were kids there that didn’t know about Nicola, but her school mates, it was as if they put a circle around her just to make sure she was okay.”

A recent fundraising night was held in St Joseph’s Church Hall in Tollcross with a number of events—including the auctioning of a signed Celtic football—raising £3000. Coupled with online donations, £10,000 has now been raised towards the £15,000 needed for the new wheelchair.

Helen Mulholland, the headteacher at St Joachim’s, said Nicola was a wonderful, kind and caring girl and said she hopes that she will be able to raise as much money as possible. “Her friends are lovely and are great at helping her when she needs it—but she’s very independent,” she said. “She’s a lovely wee girl.”

Starting High School in August is the next hurdle for Nicola, and Mrs McAnena said that while her daughter is not shy she is not going to have it easy.

“It’s part and parcel of life for her. When she is out working people are going to need to know about her and she is going to have to learn to tell them. She’s getting older so she’s got to learn—there is no point in wrapping her up in cotton wool. She gets held back enough without me saying ‘you can’t do that.’ And if I leave her to do what she’s got to do—because she is quite independent —if she can do it herself, she will.”

—[email protected]

—To help Nicola with her independence as she begins High School, visit: www.gofundme.com/n3x60g