Lions Club South gives student $3,000 for medical travel cost

Members of the Lions Club South on Friday handed over a cheque for $3,000 to Chequana Gilkes and her mom Desrita Gilkes. The cheque will enable Chequana to travel to Trinidad and Tobago to receive much needed medical attention.{{more}}

Chequana Gilkes is an enthusiastic and intelligent 16-year-old first year science student at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College who suffers from Spinal Muscular Dystrophy, a rare muscle disease, which has left her unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair since she was 2 and a half years old.

Upon the recommendation of an Orthopedic Surgeon, she is travelling to the Princess Elizabeth Centre in Trinidad to replace her back brace, as the one she currently wears is no longer supporting her and has become worn and fits very uncomfortably. It is expected that the new brace will allow her to sit more uprightly and prevent her spine from curving further, thereby allowing Chequana to continue her tertiary level education more comfortably.

Members of the Lions Club South were pleased to see Chequana, although confined to a wheelchair spending her summer vacation as a volunteer at the local Vinsave Centre, playing, reading and caring for the little children at the school. Chequana and her mom are both active members of the St Vincent and Grenadines National Society of Persons with Disabilities. Chequana and her guardians will travel to Trinidad on August 5.