Winner, Ellie’s wheelchair design wows judges!

ELLIE Roberts-Day, a pupil of Lord Williams’s School, Thame, stole the judges’ hearts with her entry to the Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research (SMSR) Design a Wheelchair with the WOW Factor competition, and has been announced as the Secondary School category winner.

The competition, open to both Primary and Secondary school pupils, saw a variety of entries from young children across Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, including submissions from Lord Williams’s School, Sir William Ramsay in High Wycombe, and Bruern Abbey School in Bicester.

Ellie, whose creation was inspired by her ‘Nanna’ who has MS and is confined to a wheelchair, said: “Usually I don’t enter competitions like this but when I saw this I decided to spend some time doing this activity. The reason is that my Nanna has severe MS and relies fully on her  wheelchair. However, her wheelchair is very restricting to what she can do and so she gets really upset and frustrated that she can’t do things that everyone else can, considering she likes to be independent.”

Ellie added: “Thank you for running this amazing competition. I just wanted to do this for my Nanna, and also to donate to others like her as I think everyone deserves to have their freedom and I know that my Nanna will get hers.”

SMSR’s Charlotte Minoprio commented: “We simply fell in love with this design and the poignant story behind it. On behalf of everyone involved with Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research, I would like to say a big thank you to all those children who entered the competition and their schools. There were some incredible entries which truly showed off what amazing young talent there is out there. A big thank you also to George David Estate Agents, for kindly sponsoring our competition prizes and helping with the difficult task of judging!”

The two competition winners from the Primary and Secondary school categories receive a £50 voucher for WHSmith. In addition, each winner’s school will be offered a free, interactive disability awareness assembly with an SMSR Ambassador.

All competition entries are now available to view via the Charity’s Facebook page @lifeafterpara.

To find out more about the work of Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research, please visit  www.lifeafterparalysis.com