Mum wants help for disabled son

RHONDA Highland-Alleyne of Parkinson Field, Pinelands, St Michael,  is in need of urgent help for her 22-year-old quadriplegic son.And when members of the St Michael South East Constituency Council toured the area, she informed them of her plight, and chairman Patrick Tannis promised to do something to help her.She said her son Xavier was stabbed in the neck about four years ago and since then has been unable to get around on his own. And with Highland-Alleyne not having the financial means, he’s been at home all along.“We do need help,” she said. “We went asking for help, but some of the places said that he was too old for the help – at that time we needed assistance until he was about 17. The Variety Club aided us out  a lot . . . we would get a bit of assistance from the Welfare Department, but basically that is it.”She was particularly concerned about care for him while she was at work because “he’s still young and he needs his education”. She also mentioned the need for a laptop, saying “ours is broken and that is what keeps him busy during the day”.The single mother said that a Transport Board bus service was available but sometimes the drivers were very inconsiderate: “When he get up he has to relax for a while; he gets dizzy spells and sometimes the drivers would say ‘Hurry up! Hurry up! I only have five minutes’.”Highland-Alleyne disclosed that although Xavier had regained all the feeling on his right side, and “he is trying”, only his left diaphragm worked. “If he were getting the therapy he needed he could have been further,” she lamented.Highland-Alleyne would not go into the details of the stabbing incident as the matter is sub judice, and is scheduled  to be heard at the sitting of the  Continuous Assizes.