ANN/THE STAR – Similar to many fathers, hotel technician Mohd Azizi Mohamed, 47, takes his son, Muhammad Aqiel Amni, 17, and daughter, Nur Athirah, 12, to school before starting his workday and picks them up afterward. However, unlike typical routines, these trips involve assisting his teenagers into their wheelchair and stroller, placing them into his car, driving to their school, assisting them out again, and escorting them to their classrooms. This process is repeated in reverse when he collects them in the afternoon to take them home.
“Unless you are in my shoe, it’s quite impossible to imagine the time and effort needed to transport two teenagers with cerebral palsy (CP) to school everyday,” he says in an interview at his low-cost apartment in Kampung Kerinchi, where he lives with his wife, Nor Ashikin Abdul Hamid, 46, their eldest daughter, Nur Aqielah Auni, 17, (who is also Muhammad Aqiel’s twin), and her two siblings. Before 2018, the labour was divided between him and Nor Ashikin. But that year, she had a stroke that left her right side weak.
She spent a month at the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital and although she could now walk and move, she no longer has the strength to lift her child. Muhammad Aqiel and Nur Athirah have dystonic CP, a lifelong condition that consists of repetitive and patterned movements that are sustained, like twisting of the limbs and trunk. While Muhammad Aqiel is independent – he can bathe, get dressed and eat by himself – Nur A.
