Jacob Price’s mum reckons it is almost impossible to get the smile off the face of her little ‘‘gigglepot’’.
Even with a debilitating hip condition which has confined him to a wheelchair for all but short stints, the 11-year-old has remained an upbeat, happy-go-lucky and sports-mad boy.
So it is easy to gauge how heartbroken the 11-year-old was when he cried himself to sleep on Saturday after callous thieves stole his wheelchair as he cheered on his beloved Newcastle Knights at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium.
He has been confined to the family’s East Maitland home ever since.
Jacob suffers from bilateral Perthes’ disease, a condition where both his hip joints have degenerated and he is unable to spend a lot of time on his feet.
He was diagnosed with the condition four years ago and will continue to suffer until he can get hip replacement surgery when he stops growing in about another seven years.
Jacob was part of a group of about eight family and friends who travelled to Sydney to watch the Knights take on the Sydney Roosters in a bid to make the NRL grand final.
Sitting with the rest of his East Maitland family and friends meant Jacob’s father, Kyle, stored his son’s wheelchair nearby.
Security staff then moved the chair to another position and when the Prices returned, already deflated by a Knights loss, the rented wheelchair was gone.
‘‘Apparently it was there at half time but when we returned it was gone,’’ Mrs Price said.
‘‘It was pretty devastating - we couldn’t get Jacob back to the car for starters.’’
The wheelchair had been hired from Westmead Childrens Hospital, with Jacob’s growing body meant it was more financially viable to hire rather than buy and have him outgrow the chair.
But it means the family has to find $1300 to replace it before they even start to add up the rest of the damage.
‘‘To look at, it was obviously a child’s wheelchair,’’ Mrs Price said.
‘‘It was smaller, it had the hospital’s bandaged bear all over the back of it.
‘‘And that is another thing, the hospital only has limited funds, limited resources and limited stock to go around.’’
But the family’s anger has turned to hope after a social media campaign created a massive wave of support and goodwill.
A facebook status on a Knights page made it to Twitter and onto some of the players, the NRL and the stadium.
Paralympic hero Kurt Fearnley also heard of Jacob’s plight on Tuesday and has vowed to do all he can to help find a replacement.
‘‘The support has been extraordinary, overwhelming - we can not thank people enough,’’ Mrs Price said.
