Thank you for visiting Oona's page. Oona is a bright, loving and fearless ten year old girl with a neurological condition. She was born with incredible drive to achieve and live life to the fullest. Oona uses a little blue wheelchair these days, but the first ever wheelchair she owned (at age 3) was red, which explains the name!

We are looking for support to provide Oona with:

1. All-terrain equipment Oona needs to participate in outdoor pursuits.

2. Improvements to Oona's wheelchair to allow her to move with greater freedom.

3. Specialist orthotics to lighten the load on her legs. This will make transfers easier, and allow her to continue using a walking frame indoors as she grows.

4. Additional physiotherapy.

The Story So Far...

Oona is ten. She is a chatty, intelligent and kind-hearted little girl with lots of big ambitions. Oona loves music and acting, but most of all, swimming. 

Oona's is an active, independent wheelchair user. She finds some tasks that others do easily very tricky, but she tries extremely hard to do everything she wants to do. Her effort is always 100%.

Oona's body is very responsive to therapy. In her early life, Oona had ten surgeries on her jaw, hips, legs and feet, and she spent a couple of years with both legs in plaster from her toes to her armpits, but she never let bumps in the road get her down.

In 2020, Oona was very lucky to have the opportunity to learn to swim on a course for disabled children. She fast became very skilled and very passionate about this, and despite none of the family being very sporty, we knew straight away that Oona was forging her own path. Oona's priorities and her view of herself totally changed once she discovered the water. Oona now trains with The Lothian Racers swimming team, and she has competed in several Scottish National Junior Championships, even winning medals for breast stroke, backstroke and front crawl. This has been a huge boost for her self esteem and strength.

As Oona grows, it is getting harder for her to use her walking frame, because her legs are getting heavier. We'd like to support her to continue this as much as possible, because it will make her life easier in the future. To have the best chance, she needs lightweight equipment and ongoing physiotherapy, beyond what is available on the NHS.

You will find our most up to date videos and updates on Oona's Facebook page @little red wheelchair

7.5% of all donations to Tree of Hope in relation to this appeal will be allocated to the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope to cover our core operating costs.If we raise insufficient funds, or surplus funds, then the funds will be used, if appropriate, to fund support for our child’s needs in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objects; If in those circumstances we are unable to use all or part of the funds for the benefit of our child in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objectives, then any funds that cannot be used will be transferred to be used for the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope.