Last month, the Dubbo Community Men’s Shed fulfilled its mission to gift a state-of-the-art motorised wheelchair to a deserving recipient.

It followed the Men’s Shed conducting an extensive expressions-of-interest process to find a suitable candidate for the $10,000 device.

The wheelchair, donated to the Men’s Shed by a local family whose loved one no longer needed it, was gifted to 21-year-old Tijuana Keed from Peak Hill, 74 kilometres south-west of Dubbo.

Receiving the motorised wheelchair was a life-changing moment for the young teacher’s aide, whose grandmother nominated her following an appeal in the Dubbo Photo News and on Channel Seven.

Born with spina bifida, Tijuana has used a wheelchair since she was a toddler. The new wheelchair will significantly improve her mobility and enable her to work safely.

“It [a motorised chair] helps a lot because if I have to push myself, I can’t really carry anything,” Tijuana said.

Tijuana and her family expressed their gratitude to the Dubbo Community Men’s Shed for gifting her the chair, and she had a special word of thanks to the local family who donated it, enabling the organisation to “pay it forward”.

“I just wanted to say thank you to the people who donated it in the first place and giving me the opportunity to have this chair,” she said.

Men’s Shed representatives and members of Tijuana’s extended family were present when she received the wheelchair on March 13.