The brave teenager who inspired Graeme Souness to swim the Channel has been given a new lease of life by a wheelchair funded by the family of a student killed in a knife attack.
Isla Grist, 16, who suffers from rare skin condition epidermolysis bullosa (EB), was chosen as the first recipient of support from the Barnaby Webber Foundation.
The fund was set up by the family of the 19-year-old Barnaby after he was stabbed to death in Nottingham along with Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, and Ian Coates, 65.
Isla, from the Black Isle, near Inverness, has been given a lightweight, collapsible electric wheelchair which allows her more independence to travel and see her friends.
Isla’s mum Rachael Grist said: “Isla‘s new chair gives her independence. She has been really dependent on me and our wheelchair accessible vehicle to get around.
“Now she can go with anyone she wants to – her carers, her sister or if her friend wants to take her to the cinema.
“She can go where she wants when she wants to because this new wheelchair is going to break down into small pieces and fit into even her sister’s tiny Fiat 500. It’s brilliant.
“We are just so grateful for this opportunity for Isla to spread her wings. She’s 16, she doesn’t want to go places with me, she wants to hang out with the people she really wants to spend time with.”
Isla can even use an app on her mobile phone to bring the chair to where she is.
She said: “I would like to say a massive thank you for the endless opportunities this has given me.
“It’s huge and I am very, very grateful.”
Isla has had the genetic condition EB – known as butterfly skin – since birth. It causes the skin to blister and tear at the slightest touch, leaving her in excruciating pain.
Her previous wheelchair weighed 130kg and didn’t break down.
Barnaby’s parents David and Emma Webber, from Taunton, Somerset, travelled to Isla’s home earlier this month to see her using her new chair.
They set up the foundation in their son’s honour to help young people facing “life challenges”.
Barnaby, student friend Grace and school caretaker Ian were killed in June 2023.
Paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane was sent to a high-security hospital after he pled guilty to manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.
Souness became a campaigner for EB patients after learning about the illness at a charity dinner and is vice-president of the charity DEBRA which supports people living with the condition.
The Scotland and Liverpool great helped raise £5 million for DEBRA after he and five others completed a 12-hour swim across the Channel in 2023.
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