Ref.10562MOTHER-OF-TWO Michelle Smith is appealing for a lift to help her to get her disabled son safely up and down stairs.

Miss Smith's three-and-a-half-year-old son, Kieran, has cerebral palsy, which affects his mobility. He is wheelchair-bound and cannot stand up or walk.

A month ago she had to go to the Great Western Hospital, in Swindon, when she pulled a muscle carrying him up to his bedroom. She was prescribed painkillers after an X-ray and was told she would have to undergo physiotherapy.

Miss Smith, 23, of Stokes Croft, Calne, who has a nine-month-old daughter, Tianna, is now appealing to anyone who may have an old or disused stair lift they no longer want, which she said would make life easier for her family and will give her son more independence.

Her mother, Marg, said: "He was diagnosed at 11 months. He wasn't standing up like other children do at that age and he wasn't trying to pull himself up.

"It was a shock. You wouldn't know anything was wrong with him because he does everything else he should be doing at his age.

"He's getting heavier and a stair lift would take a lot of the strain of lifting and carrying him up and down the stairs all day.

"Both his bedroom and the bathroom are upstairs. Very often he cannot go upstairs with friends because it's too much of a strain carrying him up and down."

The family was given a home on the end of a row of houses, when they moved in last October.

Miss Smith is hoping that an extension will be built sometime next year, which will include a bedroom on the ground floor for Keiran.

But the family stress the stair lift would not be used merely for a short period.

They said they would want it for the long term, because they are anxious that when Kieran does move into his bedroom in the new extension, he does not feel isolated from his mother and sister.

Miss Smith said the family would never give up hope that one day Kieran will be able to walk.

But, she admitted, it was doubtful if he would ever be able to climb stairs.

She said: "I have got two children who both depend on me, especially Kieran. A stair lift would just really help us out."

"It's hard because I have got my partner and another daughter, but I have been there from day one and as long as I can help I will.

"If anyone has got a stair lift they are not using, whether it's new or secondhand, which could be put to good use I'd love to hear from them."

The family is applying to both the Rotary and Lions Clubs to see if they can offer any help.

Anyone who could help should telephone Miss Smith on (01249) 815100.