Jessie faces difficult future with courage and a smile ...

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Jessie faces difficult future with courage and a smile ...26.12.2007

By Lacey Burley JESSIE Watkins has a magical wheelchair. In her magical wheelchair, the cheeky seven-year-old goes on exciting adventures with her hero ny Depp. In her magical wheelchair, Jessie forgets about the chronic itching, broken bones and bloated tummy that plague her day-to-day life. In her magical wheelchair, Jessie dreams of eating fairy cakes and isn't fed through a tube in her nose. And in her magical wheelchair, Jessie is a fun, normal little girl and isn't stuck waiting on the liver transplant list. Mum Sandy had to break the difficult news to Jessie last month that she would have to give up walking and be confined to a wheelchair.

"We had to finally admit that she would need to be in a wheelchair her bones were breaking," Sandy said.

Jessie was diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis when she was 15 months old.

In simple terms, her little body is rejecting her liver and bile ducts.

She has been on the liver transplant list now for 18 months.

The liver failure has softened her bones and Jessie now suffers from osteoporosis.

To help Jessie accept the big change, Sandy, Jessie's grandma Marie and a cousin decided to make her new chair magical.

They couldn't afford a new wheelchair, so they bought a second-hand one and set about making it special.

Using hot pink fabric, rainbow paint, ribbons, sequins, butterflies, fairies, unicorns and glitter, they transformed the hospital-issue wheelchair into a throne fit for a princess.

"It had to be special so she would accept it, and accept the change," Sandy said.

"It's great for her, she's getting positive comments and people stop and look at her wheelchair," she said.

Marie said Jessie's trips to the hospital had become easier.

"At the hospital now she's 10-foot tall and bullet-proof," Marie said.

"She's extremely proud of it and she just thought it was magical.

"It was a real labour of love and it's wonderful to see her with a grin from ear to ear," she said.

Sandy said they were hopeful Jessie might receive a new liver next year.

"We've been on the list for 18 months, even though they told us it would only be nine months.

"Jess is the only one that has been on the waiting list for over six months.

"So we're hopeful for next year, but there are no guarantees," she said.

Every fortnight Jessie makes the familiar trip from their Highfields home to the Royal Brisbane Hospital where she undergoes blood treatments and bone infusions for two days.

Now, she arrives in style.

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