The Sandy Lane Charitable Trust will send two young Barbadians to the CIREN International Hospital in Havana, Cuba for six weeks of neurological restoration.
They are Adio Kennedy, 3, and Kevin Scantlebury, 18.
“This is a very exciting time for us at the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust, as we have invested a great deal of time and energy into this venture in the hope that these two patients are the first of many Barbadian children who will benefit from this arrangement,” Trustee Julian Sacher said at the Sandy Lane Country Club yesterday.
Adio’s mother, Danielle Shepherd, said her son was diagnosed with CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy), an acquired immune-mediated inflammatory disorder of the peripheral nervous system, about two years ago.
This meant that all the progress he had made as a baby on a normal growth and development chart was now being reversed as the disease progressed.
Adio’s mum, also speaking on behalf of his father, Ron Kennedy who looks after him every day, expressed her gratitude to the Trust for the very generous support.
Kevin, whose condition resulted from a tragedy over a year ago, suffered sensory damage to his brain when he broke three bones in his neck after diving off a jetty at Pebbles Beach, St Michael.
His dad, Leroy Scantlebury, explained that Kevin was no longer able to use his hands or move his feet, and that the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust had been a God-send.
Sacher stressed that the Trust was all about improving and enhancing the lives and development of Barbadian children.
