Every Saturday about 9am, Ayesha Srivastava does the happy dance.
The 11-year-old is ecstatic because, for the next three hours, she gets to play with her dolls, have her favourite books read to her and make silly faces with Kate Bell, a volunteer carer from Very Special Kids, who’s been visiting her at home in Sunshine each week since she was a three-year-old.
Ayesha was born with fibromuscular dysplasia, a chronic and incurable condition that causes her arteries to narrow, reducing the flow of blood to her vital organs. The condition triggered three strokes when Ayesha was a baby, which affected the development of her brain and left her with cerebral palsy.
Ayesha’s mother Sue Beevers said she reached out to Very Special Kids, a respite care hospice in the city’s east, almost nine years ago.
And that’s when the visits from Kate started.
“Kate comes to play with Ayesha for two to three hours, and that gives us that respite time,” she said. “And Ayesha really looks forward to that time because she gets one-on-one time with Kate, and they’ve formed a really special relationship.”
Ayesha’s not the only one who looks forward to Saturday mornings. Kate said she was terrified at first when she signed up to be a volunteer carer with Very Special Kids.
“But she’s just like every other child. She’s non-verbal, but she completely understands everything you say,” she said. “She loves to play with her dolls, and she’s incredibly cheeky.
“The two of us are just so goofy when we get together. The bond we have is very special.
“Because we don’t communicate with words, everything we do is through actions. She has the ability to make sounds and she laughs a lot. I don’t have kids, but I have lots of nieces and nephews, and it’s a bond I don’t share with anyone else.”
Ayesha also spends a few days each year at the Very Special Kids centre to give her parents some time to themselves. Right now there is a group of 40 businessmen and woman cycling between Sydney and Brisbane to raise money for the Malvern hospice. So far, more than $635,000 has been raised that will be funnelled back into the organisation to ensure it can continue helping families, including Ayesha’s, manage their children’s care.
The cyclists finish the ride on March 17. To sponsor a rider or donate, go to chain-reaction.org.au/event/2017-victorian-ride.
