A TEENAGER who inspired the setting up of a charity a decade ago has now become the latest person to receive one of its grants.
Jasie Mair-Smith, 15, suffers from a number of conditions leaving him blind, wheelchair bound, severely allergic and needing 24-hour care.
He has been given £1,000 by the Pat David Garwood Trust to pay for a sensory garden behind the West End home he shares with his adoptive parents John and Jenny Smith.
In 1992 Pat Garwood was so touched by an appeal for cash to send Jasie to the Peto Institute in Budapest to help him walk that he established the eponymous Trust - which has so far given £80,000 to worthy causes.
Presenting the cheque in the Salvation Army Citadel, Blenheim Road, Eastleigh Mr Garwood said: "I started the trust to help parents with disabled children during the recession, but its grown a lot since then.
"It helps lots of different types of people such as old people and hospitals but disabled kids still get the first bite of the cherry.
"I have known Jasie for a long time and am very close to him. He's pretty special to me because if I hadn't
met him I wouldn't have set up the trust."
His father, John, said: "We are going to build a special needs garden which will be fully paved so that he can use it in his wheelchair.
He can't walk or see so its going to have things he can feel that will be at wheelchair height.
"He can't go to a lot of places that other children go to because he has terrible allergies.
His allergies are so bad that if someone who has eaten a banana kisses him he could swell up and die."
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