Runcorn staff raise funds for disabled Widnes schoolboy (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Employees support disabled Widnes boy

9:30am Saturday 6th October 2012 in News By Barbara Jordan

RUNCORN employees swapped their suits for jeans and raised more than £150 for a disabled Widnes schoolboy.

Staff at the Polar Ford dealership in Victoria Road, donated the money to seven-year-old Cameron Bray, the only child in the UK with a rare genetic condition called multicentric osteolysis.

The disorder has eaten away at the bones in his hands, feet and the back of his eyes, leaving him in a wheelchair.

Cameron, of Houghton Street, has just returned from America, where bone specialists prescribed orthopaedic shoes to help him walk, splints to support his hands, bone medication and exercises to support his condition.

He has been treated at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital since he was two-years-old.

His aunt, Caroline Wright, is service advisor at Polar Ford.

The money raised will help pay for Cameron to make regular trips to Shriners Hospital for Children in St Louis, Missouri.

His next appointment is in February 2014.

Wellwishers have raised £13,000 to ensure he can continue with the treatment and research until he is 21.

Coleen Gates, from Polar Ford, said: “We are really pleased with the amount of money raised for the appeal. There was a great atmosphere in the showroom throughout the day and everyone thoroughly enjoyed being able to wear their jeans. I would like to say a big thank to everyone who helped organise the event and donated on the day.”

The event was organised as part of Jeans for Genes day, established in 1996, to raises funds for research into serious and often life-threatening genetic disorders affecting thousands of children. More than £36 million has been raised since it began.