Customer Story - Callaghan
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CUSTOMER STORY COUPLE TRANSFORM HOME FOR BRAVE DAUGHTER “She is our little miracle. We wanted the best for her and to make her life easier” A couple from Wigan spent more than £50,000 of their life savings to transform their home and make life easier for their daughter who has a rare skin condition requiring laser treatment leaving her with ‘polka dots’ all over her face. Paul and Rebecca Callaghan have made huge changes to their three bedroom semi-detached property in Leigh to help Matilda, who suffers from a rare neurological and skin disorder called Sturge-Weber Syndrome and almost died when she was born. Matilda, who was six last month, has a rare birthmark which covers all her face and the right side of her body and has regular laser treatment to stop it from growing. The distinct ‘polka dot’ marks are bruising caused by the lasers which burn the blood capillaries under her skin to prevent the mark from growing and becoming deformed. The birthmark is also internal so it affects Matilda’s brain, eyes and gums. She may have to have treatment every two months until she is 16 to prevent the birth mark from growing. SWS, which affects around 14 children in the UK every year, has caused the little girl visual impairment, epilepsy, glaucoma and paralysis in her left side. Matilda was also born with two holes in her heart and a pouch in her throat and required life-saving surgery when she was a baby. She also has digestion problems caused by Tracheoesophageal Fistula which means she was born without a tube from her throat to her stomach so doctor had to build one for her. Matilda has had more than 30 operations and is due to have more laser treatment on her face this month. Wife Rebecca is Matilda’s full-time carer. The Callaghan’s have spent thousands on extending the upstairs of their home and putting in a sensory room – a special room designed to develop Matilda’s sense through special lighting, objects and music –

They have also built a completely new kitchen which has been designed around the focal point of the room – Matilda’s unique home lift, manufactured by UKbased company Stiltz Lifts, which Paul found online. The Callaghan’s wanted to make their home as ‘accessible as possible’ for Matilda but did not want to turn it into a house with ‘stereotypical disabled products’. The innovative home lift is a good example of this. At a cost of around £14,000, the Stiltz Trio Home Lift is compact but spacious enough to accommodate Matilda’s four-wheel Veldink Kiddo Classic children’s wheelchair which the...