A little girl from Galivants Ferry got a special surprise in Myrtle Beach.
Seven year old Kathryn Brown got her very own beach wheelchair.
Kathryn was diagnosed with Spina Bifida, a birth defect where the spinal cord fails to close or develop properly.
When she’s not carried by her family she uses a wheelchair, but not one that can ride through the Myrtle Beach sand. That changed Tuesday.
A non profit, Angels of Alabama drove all the way from Alabama to donate the beach wheelchair.
The angel behind Kathryn’s gift shares a similar story. “I was born with Spina Bifida,” said Tyler Thompson, Executive Director of Angels of Alabama, “And I know the struggle families growing up with kids with Spina Bifida.”
On the sandy, sometimes shelly Horry County beaches, those special wheelchairs make a world of difference to families with special needs children.
“It will make such a difference, because she really does love to come to the beach,” Louise Pribanick, Kathryn’s grandmother said. “And we don’t get to come as often as we’d like to.”
The chair costs thousands of dollars, one that the Brown family wouldn’t have been able to afford.
“We’re grateful beyond anything,” Pribanick said. “We don’t even have enough words.”
This was the sixth beach wheelchair the Angels of Alabama delivered to someone with special needs. The non-profit plans to continue that work in other coastal communities.
For more information on the Angels of Alabama, visit their Facebook page.
