Rhys and Rebecca Bailey-Brown are the latest Wagga residents to feel the full affect of what happens when the city rallies for a worthy cause.
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The couple’s youngest daughter, Alice, has grade five cerebral palsy and is only capable of involuntary movements.
But a charity movie screening on Friday night ensures the couple will be able to afford extensive physiotherapy for three-year-old Alice.
“Alice is not immobile but she can’t sit up or hold her neck up,” Mr Bailey-Brown said.
“If we don’t do the physiotherapy she will be wheelchair bound for the rest of her life.
“She’s not going to be able to do anything significant but our hope is that she’ll be able to stand up at bare minimum.”
This simple movement will ensure Alice will be able to sit in the car with her five older siblings instead of riding in the back in her wheelchair.
Alice gets bored if she sits still too long so her family often takes her for walks into town from their central home.
“She has her own little network of people who love her,” Mr Bailey-Brown said.
“But until you have a child with a disability, you don’t understand how people stare at you.
“The thing that breaks that down is when people come over and hold her hand.
“She beams with human touch.”
Alice also has epilepsy, which is medically managed, but her parents ensure she lives as normal as possible.
Alice has one-on-one care at Shaw Street Childrens Centre Inc two days a week.
“We see the kids at school treating her like she’s one of them,” Mr Bailey-Brown said.
Movies by Moonlight owner/operator Matt Canny knows the Bailey-Brown family and found himself in a position to help them.
Mr Canny has two young children and knows how it feels to want to protect them at all costs.
He donated the inflatable screen used in movie screenings to the Run 2 Raise group, who are committed to raising funds for Alice over the next 12 months.
More than 400 people attended a charity screening of The Boxtrolls at Mater Dei oval and raised more than $7000.
“Being a parent, you’d do anything for your kids,” Mr Canny said.
“One of Rhys’s daughters is in my son’s class.
“It was a privilege just helping a family who never complain.
“They’re inspirational people.”
Mr Canny will continue to donate the use of the inflatable screen for future charity screenings with Run 2 Raise.
