Connect with us

Charity

WATCH St Gabriel’s Foundation receive life-changing equipment thanks to record-breaking rower

Published

on

Innowalk, a life-changing piece of equipment, was delivered to St. Gabriel’s Foundation On Jnauary 14, 2025 after a fundraiser by world row-athon record breaker Kate Healy raised the funds to purchase the macine for the charity. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

St Gabriel’s Foundation has received two InnoWalk machines which will transform the lives of children and young people with mobility issues

St Gabriel's Foundation has received two InnoWalk machines which will transform the lives of children and young people with mobility issues
Kate Healy pictured with Lovre using the InnoWalk machine. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

St Gabriel’s Foundation has secured not one, but two InnoWalk machines, following the incredible fundraising efforts which included Kate Healy’s Guinness World Record-breaking 24 hour rowing attempt in December 2024 at the Crescent Shopping Centre.

InnoWalk machines are dynamic standers designed to provide children who are unable to walk with a chance to simulate walking, offering physical and emotional benefits including improving breathing, muscle strength, and overall development.

Receiving the innovative machines was made possible through a huge collaborative effort between St Gabriel’s dedicated staff, parents, local clubs, and generous sponsors.


advertisement

advertisement


advertisement

advertisement

The record-breaking Kate Healy told I Love Limerick, “Firstly, it was a huge team effort overall, 100 per cent I couldn’t have done it without anybody involved. The reason that we’ve gone for the InnoWalk, which is a dynamic standard, is as a physiotherapy department here in St Gabriel’s Foundation, we had the amazing opportunity to trial the piece of equipment over the summer.

“We saw the amount of benefits that both parents, families, children and young adults were seeing as well. There was No reason why we shouldn’t be getting it, it’s a gold standard piece of equipment and we’re delighted to have actually raised some money and not only gotten one InnoWalk, but we’ve gotten two!”  

The InnoWalk stands out from traditional equipment because it combines multiple functions in a single device: standing, moving, and stretching. Lovre, a St Gabriel’s Foundation service user said, “Like all the other equipment I’ve used was only like parts of walking, for example, just moving my legs or just standing, but like this is all together. So like it’s literally just walking and it’s also giving my leg a good stretch. It’s So nice and I’ll be using it hopefully every week.”

Receiving the innovative machines was made possible through a huge collaborative effort between St Gabriel’s dedicated staff, parents, local clubs, and generous sponsors.. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

Kate explained that through the support of two companies, the foundation was able to acquire a second machine, she said, “After the fabulous company Made for Movement and Living Comfort Support heard about our project, they also got on board. They offered us a paediatric machine, and the benefit of this is that we can now support children from a very young age who are learning how to walk, and learning how to walk correctly with the correct gait kinematics, all the way up to 18 and older as well.”

For families like the Lanes, the InnoWalk has been a beacon of hope, and Ger and Allison lane helped raise €17,000 toward the machines. Their nine-year-old son, Matthew, who has been attending St Gabriel’s since he was four, has physical impairments that limit his mobility.

Allison told I Love Limerick, “Matthew, who’s nine now, has been attending St Gabriel’s since he was four, and the services that he has received here and the care has been absolutely exceptional. Last year we decided to do a fundraising campaign towards the St Gabriel’s Foundation, and it just happened to coincide with this marvellous InnoWalk that they were hoping to purchase, so it kind of just happened!”

Ger added, “Matthew hasn’t been able to walk since he was born with a lot of physical impairments. While he’s had standing frames and while he’s had things to try and help him, he’s never liked a lot of them, but the benefit of the InnoWalk is that he can go into it quite easily and he seems to really enjoy it. It allows him to weight bear and work his central core muscles and the standing muscles alone and he seems to really enjoy it.”

Kate told I Love Liemrick, “100 per cent I couldn’t have done it without anybody involved”. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

Treasa McAuliff, CEO of St Gabriel’s Foundation expressed her gratitude for receiving the equipment and noted the difference it will make, she said, “It has lots of health benefits; they’re upright, it helps their breathing, it helps their development, and it gives them the opportunity to be able to feel like they’re moving like the rest of their peers. It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to provide this here in St. Gabriel’s.”

St Gabriel’s Foundation rely heavily on the support of the public and fundraising efforts to keep their service available to families in Limerick and across the Mid West, with all fundraising over the years helping improve the services, the development on the facilities, and the delivery of equipment such as the InnoWalk machines.

Pictures: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick

Richard is a presenter, producer, songwriter and actor. He was named the Limerick Person of the Year (2011) and won an online award at the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (2011) for promoting multi-culturalism online. Richard says that the ilovelimerick.com concept is very much a community driven project that aims to document life in Limerick. So, that in 20 years time people can look back and remember the events that were making the headlines.