Satan’s Little Helper programme supports two Waikato kids having it tough

Satan's Little Helper gifted Amelia Rickard a new sewing machine. Photos / Hell Pizza

Hell Pizza’s Satan’s Little Helper programme has done it again and brightened up the life of two Waikato kids.

The programme, founded in 2016, is a charity that aims to put a smile on the faces of Kiwi youth going through (or who have been through) hell through fun experiences and life-enhancing gifts.

Thorin Ridley, 6, is autistic and completely non-verbal, while 15-year-old Amelia Rickard has cystic fibrosis which means her lungs are not doing the job they should.

Satan’s Little Helper gifted Thorin a tablet to help him communicate and Amelia received a new sewing machine to give her something positive to focus on.

Thorin’s mum Jessica doesn’t know why her son can’t talk - medically, there’s no reason he should be non-verbal.

“We don’t think he has an intellectual disability and his hearing is fine, but it’s like the ‘talk’ button hasn’t been switched on in his brain. You can see him moving his mouth in the mirror to form words, but he doesn’t make the sounds,” she says.

Thorin is one of five siblings and is happy to be left to play by himself - a fact that worries Jessica sometimes.

“I worry that sometimes he might feel like an afterthought.”

Not having the means to communicate with the world must be incredibly frustrating, so Satan’s Little Helper got him a tablet. Jessica says the device has already made a huge difference.

Satan's Little Helper gifted Waikato boy Thorin Ridley a tablet to help him communicate. Photos / Hell Pizza

“The tablet has increased his confidence a lot. For example, my sister came over and it was the first time he’d grabbed her to do stuff with him. She almost had tears in her eyes because it was the first time he’d interacted with her like that,” Jessica says.

He’s taking a bit longer to use it as a communication device, but Jessica says he loves to make it say “My name is Thorin” on repeat.

The tablet also made him develop new interests.

“He’s a lot more into books. He seems a lot more interested in words in general and in listening to other people read to him. He’s started to do things like jigsaw puzzles, drawing pictures and playing little random games – it’s really bringing his personality out more.

“It’s giving us a sneak peek into what this kid may be in the future,” Jessica says.

Meanwhile, for Amelia, having cystic fibrosis means breathing can feel like you’re trying to take in oxygen through a straw placed in a cup of jelly.

She has lived with this degenerative condition since she was 4 weeks old, and over the past few years it has become worse, with two intense hospital stays in the past six months alone.

Her mum Margaret says Amelia struggles socially because she needs so much time off school, which makes it hard to form connections.

“When she started high school, she went for less than three days before she needed two weeks off.”

Amelia is now getting home-schooled and is doing better. Her brother Sean says Amelia’s sense of humour has helped her through the tough times.

“She ended up naming the chest drain machine Steve and has an attitude of ‘if you can’t laugh about it, what can you do?’,” he says.

The sewing machine gives Amelia something other than all the medical stuff to focus on and something to look forward to.

“I’ve never seen her more energetic than she was when it first arrived. She’d wake up early, so she could spend more time using it,” Sean says.

However, a sewing machine isn’t the only bit of good news Amelia has recently received: Pharmac announced a proposal to fund a cystic fibrosis drug for people aged 6 and above which is estimated to give those with the condition an extra 27 years at full health.