She Was So Excited…Until The Phone Call

A girl who suffers from cerebral palsy has been left heartbroken after being promised she would be taken to a christening – only for her care provider to cancel due to staffing issues.

Rachel McAdam, 21, of Penshaw Court, Runcorn, requires round-the-clock care which has been provided by Runcorn-based Just Care for the past two years. She was looking forward to going to the christening of Daisy, the daughter of a family friend, this Sunday.

Rachel’s mother Irene Wadsworth said: “About six weeks ago I was told they would be able to do it. A couple of weeks after that I received a phone call from Just Care explaining that Rachel had been booked in for a social. Rachel was very excited about attending the christening, she bought presents for the baby and bought herself a new outfit and had her hair done.

“Everyone could see the excitement on her face. That was until we got a phone call. If you could have seen this young woman’s face change when I had to tell her Just Care were letting her down.”

Just Care, which has looked after Rachel as well as her brother Geoffrey, 18, who also has cerebral palsy, for the last two years, is paid about £400 a week to care for Rachel. This includes twice-daily visits to her home by carers plus social trips.

Carl Watson, manager of Just Care, said: “We have provided care services to Rachel for a number of years and pride ourselves in a friendly, professional and, above all, reliable service. The request for social care for Rachel was additional to her daily care requirements.

“Due to staff leave commitments and staff sickness we were unable to provide cover in this particular instance. It is not our policy to be able to make a definite commitment to covering an unscheduled extra social call until one to two weeks prior to the date. This is because all resources have to be concentrated primarily on essential personal care services.”