Timaru 13-year-old will be more mobile with new trike

Isabelle La Grange has a rare condition which restricts her ability to get around.

Now the community is raising $25,000 to get the Timaru 13-year-old moving on a specialist trike, with her family hoping to complete the Rail Trail or Alps 2 Ocean cycle trails in the future.

Isabelle was born with bilateral hip dysplasia, a condition where the ball and socket joint of the hip does not form properly in babies and young children.

Her father, Marius La Grange, said about one in 1000 children were born with the condition.

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“And 99% of children with it did not need surgery and their condition is sorted with a brace,” he said.

However, in Isabelle’s case multiple procedures, the first when she was just 7-months old, have not helped her condition, and in March 2022, the family was told none of the medical interventions had worked, and she has been diagnosed with permanent disability , her father said.

Her condition will be managed with pain medication and physiotherapy until her late 20s when she will have a hip replacement, he said.

She also has a 2cm leg discrepancy and because of her condition, her back is also arched, meaning movement can be difficult.

While using crutches helps, going to secondary school this year means Isabelle will require a wheelchair to get around easier.

However, she does not see her condition as a disability instead focusing on the positives.

“To grow up with it, I just had to deal with it,” Isabelle said.

“I don’t find it unusual, it’s just what it is.”

A creative soul, Isabelle enjoys art, especially sketching characters.

Her work was submitted to Toitoi last year, an initiative encouraging young New Zealanders to submit original material that reflects their cultures and experiences of life.

At the suggestion of Isabelle’s physiotherapist, the family attended a Trike expo in Christchurch last year where, for the first time in her life, she was able to ride a bicycle.

“Previously when she’d tried to ride a bike, she couldn’t,” La Grange said.

“At the expo she tried a trike, and she didn’t want to leave. She loved it.”

Having a trike would allow her some independence and the chance to get out and about, her father said.

Isabelle likened the experience of riding the bike to the time, in 2020, when she won a section of the Timaru Soapbox Derby.

“I was riding the kart for Alpine Energy because Dad works there.

“I didn’t have brakes halfway through and someone had to catch me at the end.”

The adrenaline rush had stayed with her, she said.

“When we see a hill I always say ‘can I go down there?’.”

The first thing she will do once she gets her trike will be to ride it down a hill and enjoy the feeling of freedom.

“It will be, ‘out of the way, Isabelle’s on her way’,” her mother said.

A Givealittle page has been set up by a family friend, with a target of $25,000.

Isabelle’s mother Sharlene La Grange said the trike would be about $20,000, and they hoped to be able to purchase a trailer to transport it, and flags, so she is visible when she is out and about.

Any money left over would be donated to a charity of Isabelle’s choice, she said.

“The trike is expensive but it is built according to the needs of the person,” she said.

The trike would take about six months to arrive after being bought.

“The community has been really amazing so far in supporting us,” Sharlene said.

“We are really hoping we can achieve it.”

And once Isabelle was used to riding the trike, the family hoped to get out and enjoy some of the district’s cycle and walking tracks.