Tallygaroopna teen’s new wheels inspire community help

“He’d broken the top of his femur where it goes into the hip socket,” Ms Webb said.

“It was dislodged and on a side angle.”

After being operated on, Colton spent a week in hospital in Melbourne, before returning closer to home and spending a week at Goulburn Valley Health.

By the time Colton was ready to come home in a wheelchair, Ms Webb hadn’t had the chance to organise ramps to help him get around their Tallygaroopna home.

When members of the Tallygaroopna Men’s Shed heard about Colton’s situation, they wanted to help out.

Not long after he got out of hospital, they came around to build three ramps outside, to help Colton get around his home with ease.

Ms Webb said the men’s shed members were “absolute lifesavers”.

“He was so keen on coming home, he was over the hospital,” she said.

“The guys came out within a day and knocked the ramps up by lunchtime.

“They even came back again because they weren’t happy with something.

“Their community spirit and rallying around when someone needed them was just amazing.”

Although Ms Webb had hired some ramps, she said they were “really unsteady”, but the ramps the men’s shed members built had “held up really well”.

“We couldn’t open one of the doors while we had the ramp there,” she said.

“They just weren’t suitable for the setup.”

Despite having only moved from Garfield just over 18 months ago, Ms Webb said the support from the Tallygaroopna community was incredible.

“I don’t like to ask for handouts or anything like that,” she said.

“We’ve gotten quite involved in the sporting side of things, we’ve pretty much met everyone from there.

“It’s been really good, we’ve developed some really nice friendships out of it.

“The community up here is really tight-knit.”

Tallygaroopna Men’s Shed secretary Lindsay Muston said although there were three builders in the group, “nearly half of the shed was involved” in installing the ramps.

Ten men’s shed members made the design, and about six men went and installed them to make sure the ramps were going to be “safe and reliable”.

Mr Muston said all the work was voluntary, and they were happy to donate the ramps to Colton.

“We’ve got our men’s shed into a position where we can focus on the community,” he said.

“We’re not looking to make a dollar out of everything we do.”

Ms Webb said Colton was still recovering from the crash, and he “can’t really walk any long distances without help”.

“He’s still using the chair, but is on crutches and can sort of get around from A to B without crutches,” she said.

Ms Webb said there was “no real timeline” for Colton’s recovery, with more appointments coming up at the Royal Children’s to see how he was healing.

However, due to a lack of blood flow in his growth plate, Colton may need another operation and a hip replacement.

“I think 12 months will be a good telling sign,” Ms Webb said.

“The doctors were worried because there was no blood flow to the area, and they said healing is really crucial on blood flow.

“They did say it can take nine months to even come back.

“Only time will tell.”