NEGRIL, Westmoreland — Sharmika Lloyd could not contain her joy when she watched her four-year-old son, Keandre, being fitted with new leg braces that will change his life.

“He is a CP [cerebral palsy] child so… I'm trying to give him the best chance of walking and being independent,” she said.

Lloyd was one of the happy parents whose children were fitted with free leg braces at the Paediatric Orthotic Clinic in Negril last weekend. Accompanied by her sister, Latavia Redman, she made the trip from Portmore, St Catherine to the north coast.

“This clinic actually helps me, especially because I'm a single mother and the cost to buy the braces is a lot of money,” she added.

This is the second time her son has received braces from the clinic. He outgrew the first pair.

“I feel happy because he needs the brace to help him, and I see where they are helping him so I'm really, really grateful,” said the happy mother.

Carla Campbell, whose three-year-old son Micah has a clubfoot, said she was excited when she got the call to come in because her son had been having challenges with the pair of braces he received from the hospital.

“The braces that he got in Kingston... keep hurting his foot so we're having that sorted today. I feel good being here today because in Kingston you don't get the option; they just give you the prescription and they make a brace. But his foot is a bit broad so the ones he got, they are too narrow so it's not helping; it's hurting [him] instead,” Campbell said.

While trying out the new braces on her son, Campbell told the Jamaica Observer that she was already seeing the results as Micah sat happily playing with his toy during the process.

“The ones he had on, he keeps taking them off every day saying that it's hurting his foot and he doesn't want them. But I keep putting them back on cause they're [doctors] saying that he should wear them for 23 hours per day. I think this one will be better. He would normally be pulling his foot when I try to put it on, but he hasn't done that since,” she explained.

The volunteer-based clinic's seven-member team was seen checking records, as well as fitting and designing special braces for the children.

Some were able to get other equipment to boost their mobility. Among them was four-year-old Trey Miracle Tomlinson who was gifted with a wheelchair. Diagnosed with a severe case of spina bifida, a spinal defect that affects key motor skills, Trey's parents were told their son would not live long after birth. They are happy those predictions were wrong. Last Saturday Trey was moving around happily with the help of his father Troy Tomlinson.

“Doctors said he wasn't going to make it. They said he's not going to be able to talk, not going to be able to see or walk [but] the only challenge we face right now is just Trey not walking; and he is taking some small steps, he's trying. He's a miracle,” Tomlinson said.

Overcome with emotions, the grateful father spoke of the difference the clinic has made to their lives.

“Today is really a dream come true for me and my family, especially little Trey-Trey. It's a blessing and words can't even describe the way I feel right now receiving a chair for Trey; it's more than overwhelming. Honestly, I'm just happy. I'm so full,” he told the Observer.

“Trey is really a gift from God. I can't see it any other way. Trey for me is my biggest blessing; he's 100 per cent perfect in my eyes. Coming from work sometimes I have a stressful day and as I step in the house Trey say, 'Daddy come, let me take off your shoes'... I am blessed with a child who can't walk but yet want to take off my shoes. When he comes from school he will say, 'Daddy, mi get homework. Daddy, mi trace mi letters. Daddy, mi trace mi name.' Him tell mi everything,” Tomlinson continued.

Operator of the clinic, Elaine Bradley said it was conceptualised in 2009 in response to the needs of parents in Westmoreland who had children with orthotic disabilities but were unable to get help because of financial constraints.

“Our aim is to help children with lower extremity deformities in the sense that our children [have] spina bifida, cerebral palsy, some tippy toe, bowlegs, or sometimes some of them have some type of stroke at birth or as they are growing up. And so we aim to help them to navigate this world on their two feet as best we can,” Bradley said.

She stressed that their work was not easy as each brace had to be specifically tailored to each child that comes to the clinic.

“So, we put braces on the kids' feet and the braces are donated from Canada and the [United] States. We have a work room so we measure the kids' feet. We look at their ailments and sometimes their bones are twisted and we need to get them correctly formed, so the younger we get the kids, the better — and we try to prevent them getting surgery,” she told the Observer.

“We have to manipulate the prosthetics so that they fit our children, so we have to heat the plastic to manipulate it for their individual cases. It might take one hour or up to five hours so, we have about 12 patients for the day — sometimes we are here till eight in the evening. We stay as long as it takes because no parent leaves here unless they can put on the braces, so they are operating at an optimal level,” Bradley continued.

Because the small clinic, which was created to cater to children from the parish of Westmoreland, has now grown to accommodate children from all over the island, Bradley noted that they cannot facilitate walk-ins.

“A lot of our children are referred from Bustamante [Hospital for Children] or from a physiotherapist, or from their doctor, or from a physiologist,” she said.

She explained that there is no cost to patients as the clinic is sponsored by the Riu Hotels and there are also donations from physicians who volunteer there.

“Our specialists from Canada and the United States come out three times a year. We have March, like now, and then maybe in June or July, but definitely in October or November. We work for about a week, and we see maybe 50 children,” Bradley said.

One of the long-time volunteers, Gabriel Beversluis, who is a paediatric orthotist from Kentucky in the United States, said the work they do at the clinic often helps children stand for the very first time.

“I have been doing this clinic for seven years now. Twice a year we take donated AFO ankle braces and leg braces from my patients in the United States, and we bring them down and we provide them free of charge for children here in Jamaica who don't have access to them,” he said.

“It's a wonderful experience... Very often we see little kids that are not able to pull to stand or to take steps independently like we hope that they will be able to, because they have a problem with their ankles or legs or feet and the muscles aren't working quite right. We are able to provide the bracing or the supports for them to help them to be able to stand and walk, which is so important for them to develop and to have a good life,” Beversluis continued.

His wife Jodi, a nurse who travels with him every year, said she was blessed to be able to volunteer at the clinic and that she hopes it is something they can continue to do.

“We've been coming down here for a number of years to work in the orthotic clinic. We had heard that there was a big need, and we didn't really know how it was going to go when we started coming here. But then the more we started coming and the word got out that we were doing this clinic, I guess it just kinda became something that we wanted to keep on doing,” she said.