IT IS just a year since News and Views featured little Amy Jane Urquhart, Coronation Road, who has both spina bifida and hydrocephalus. Since then she has fulfilled her dream of going to Disneyland and learning to go a bike like her friends. For Amy cannot walk and has to spend her days in a wheelchair.

Last year an appeal was launched to help Amy get a cycle and let her go on holiday, for her parents Debbie and James cannot work due to the constant care and attention that a spina bifida sufferer needs.
Now, thanks to the generosity of Merkinch folk Amy has been able to achieve both her dearest wishes.
Coffee mornings, raffles, a couple of prize bingo sessions at the Clach Club all helped to raise the necessary funds. “The Clach Club were really supportive,” said Debbie.

Earlier this year, much to her delight, Amy got her special hand-powered bike, and she was all set to go to Disneyland Paris in the summer when she broke her leg.
However, by the October holidays Amy was fit again and so on 8th October she set off with her mum and dad for a nine-day trip to the French resort.

“It was really brilliant,” said Amy. “I had a lovely, lovely, lovely time. Pluto was my favourite. We stayed at the Hotel Cheyenne and everybody said ‘Bonjour!’.”

After they came home, Amy caught the flu, but she is back to her irrepressible self once again.

Amy is a lively wee girl who makes the best of her condition, even although it involves frequent physiotherapy, a string of operations and hospital visits, not to mention the sheer frustration of spending her days in a chair.

She will be six in February, and is now a pupil at Cauldeen School where she is in the mainstream Primary One class.

“She really loves the school,” says Debbie. “And on Mondays she goes swimming at Drummond School.”

Regularly Amy goes for a few hours to respite care at The Orchard in Broom Drive to give her mum and dad a break.

“Sometimes I even stay all night,” she says.

Debbie and James are very grateful to all those who supported Amy’s fund and helped them to extend the little girl’s chair-bound horizons. “We really would like to thank everyone who supported us,” she told News and Views.