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Things are looking up for Jelly Babies’ little star Carter!

12:00am | & Lifestyle

Little Carter Lee just loves his time at Jelly Babies Nursery, where he’s been ‘a member of the family’ for the past two years and where no-one worries about his cerebral palsy or the challenges it brings for his mobility and communication.

“Carter started at Jelly Babies when he was just five months old and he just loves it here,” enthused his mum, Claire. “It’s fantastic, he’s fully involved with everything and everyone here is so good with him.”

But a dark cloud was looming on Carter’s horizon which could have brought an abrupt end to his Jelly Babies joy. The nursery – based in the Little Lever area of Bolton and rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted ­– is housed in a former Victorian primary school. Children from babies up to age three use the ground floor, but the pre-school unit for three and four-year-olds is located upstairs.

Carter is now two-and-a-half, but getting up the return staircase, comprising two flights of stairs, would be very difficult and potentially dangerous, both for him and members of the nursery staff.

“I didn’t know what we were going to do,” said Maxine Phillips, who has owned and run Jelly Babies with a dedicated team for almost 30 years. “Everyone loves Carter and the last thing we wanted was to lose him, but I had to think about the pressure on our staff to get him up and down the stairs, and the safety issues it would cause.”

Carter’s Mum was even more desperate for him to stay: “He’s so happy and settled here and as a parent you just want your children to be happy. He’s also got lots of friends and I hope that when the time comes for him to go to school he will be going with those friends, which will make it easier.”

Determined to find a solution, Claire, her partner Jason and the Jelly Babies team held a crisis meeting: “We thought about all the options,” said owner Maxine. “We even considered bringing the pre-school unit downstairs, but it would be such a big upheaval to move everything round and it would cause other problems.”

In the end they agreed the answer was a stairlift, so that Carter could ride in safety up and down the stairs, and the focus then turned on how to pay for it. A fundraising campaign was planned, with ideas for a series of events. In the meantime, Claire began contacting stairlift suppliers to get a quote for the work… which is where things took a turn for the up!

“When we heard Carter’s story and just how much it meant for everyone to keep him at Jelly Babies, we knew we could do our bit,” said Gareth Deegan, assistant UK sales manager at West Yorkshire-based Acorn Stairlifts. “We decided to donate and install one of our British-built Acorn Stairlifts free of charge.”

“I just couldn’t believe it when Acorn said they’d do it for free,” said Claire. “Everything just seemed to fall into place and it will make a massive difference for Carter. I’d keep him at Jelly Babies until he’s ready for university if I could!”

After a few ‘building regs’ boxes were ticked, the made-to-measure stairlift was installed and ready to take an excited Carter on his first trip upstairs. Once he is securely strapped into the seat, the stairlift is moved up and down by staff members using the remote controls supplied as standard. It will also be available for any other children with mobility issues who attend the nursery in future, and for visiting parents and grandparents who struggle with the stairs.

Like all the best stories, it’s one with a happy ending, and nothing captured that happiness better than the smile on Carter’s face as he took his first trip on Jelly Babies’ new Acorn stairlift.

Carter is pictured with his mum Claire and, from the left, Jelly Babies owner Maxine Phillips, support worker Gemma Carney and nursery manager Claire Clarke.

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