Saw Beebe lies flat on his stomach on the wooden floor of his family home. For the last three years, it is how he has spent most of his time.
The nine-year-old once enjoyed going to school and loved dancing. But at the age of seven, he suffered a mystery illness that robbed him of the ability to move and also left him mentally handicapped.
Confined to the house, in a remote village in Myanmar, the young Saw Beebe continued to grow, making it difficult for his mother, Mu Naw Gay, or his siblings to carry him.
With the nearest major town and hospital an arduous journey over mountains, rivers and an international border, the prospects for Saw Beebe and his family were grim.
That is, until a group of Australian retirees made an unusual delivery.
SPECIAL DELIVERY
Transporting any package to the mountains of Myanmar is no easy feat, but a heavy-duty wheelchair designed for rough terrain carries extra challenges.
After being tested to ensure it met World Health Organisation standards, the chair had to be boxed and dispatched by ship from Australia to Bangkok, trucked to Mae Sot, placed on a river boat and then onto a four-wheel-drive pickup truck for final delivery to Saw Beebe's remote jungle village of Thay Maw Ku in Karen state.
The chair was designed specially for Saw Beebe by Wheelchairs for Kids, a group of retiree volunteers in Australia, which currently builds around 320 wheelchairs a month and has donated them to as many as 66 countries, including Thailand and Myanmar.
One of the group's volunteers, Don Kidson, 74, said wheelchair No 32,468 was designated and built at the Wheelchairs for Kids workshop in the Australian city of Perth. Mr Kidson said the chair's long journey to Myanmar was organised in Perth by Debbie Singh from the Wanneroo Rotary Club, and by Burma Children's Medical Fund director Kanchana Thornton on the Thai-Myanmar border.
"When Kanchana invited me to go into the jungle to deliver the wheelchairs, I had no idea what an amazing venture I was about to embark on," Ms Singh said.
"Seeing wheelchairs loaded onto the very narrow long-tail boats and then stepping into the boat from the steep muddy embankment was scary, but this was the only way to cross the river to get to the remote jungle communities."
'HE USED TO BE HAPPY'
Thay Maw Ku village has a small clinic that can treat minor illnesses, but those with serious problems like Saw Beebe have to travel over mountains -- using dirt tracks that turn to mud in the wet season and are ankle-deep in dust in the dry -- and then find a boat to cross the river to a hospital in Tha Song Yang district in Thailand's Tak province.
The village may not be very far in distance, but due to the lack of all-weather sealed roads and little or no local transport, it takes one and a half hours to negotiate the multiple steep mountain passes. The trip to reach the Thai border is only possible with the use of a four-wheel drive in the dry season. During the wet season, villagers have to make the arduous trek on foot.
In July 2013, Mu Naw Gay, 37, said her son had complained of exhaustion and was suffering from a fever. The family took him to Mae Tan Hospital on the Thai side of the border, but the boy's condition only worsened.
The hospital discharged Saw Beebe, as they had no treatment available for the small boy. But by then his condition had worsened to the point that he was left both mentally and physically disabled.
Health workers suspect his illness was the result of a bacterial or viral infection in the brain.
Mu Naw Gay recalled her neighbour's shock at seeing her son's condition for the first time.
"She said, 'He used to be a very happy boy. If he heard the sound of music, he would always dance. He was not shy.' At first when people here saw him in this condition, they cried -- he had a lot of friends," Mu Naw Gay said.
Naw Wai, 73, Saw Beebe's grandmother, who has helped take care of the boy, said it was heartbreaking to see her grandson in this condition.
"The first time I saw him with this condition, I felt sad for him and cried."
OUT AND ABOUT
Mrs Thornton said getting wheelchairs to children who are housebound is important as it can improve their lives significantly.
"The wheelchairs are important for all the children who really need them. It means they can get out and about, have a certain level of independence and are no longer isolated."
Wheelchairs for Kids describe their organisation in a promotional leaflet as "150 retiree volunteers … in a 'men's shed' style environment, each working between one and three days a week".
"Many of our members are in their eighties and the oldest was 93, until he retired this year," said Mr Kidson. "We all get a lot of satisfaction; that's why we do it. It's gives us a great deal of pleasure to see the photos of the kids using the chairs that we build."
Mrs Thornton said Saw Beebe's wheelchair was part of a shipment of 165 chairs donated by Wheelchairs for Kids to BCMF.
"We gave 30 wheelchairs to the Institute of Orthopaedics at Lerdsin General Hospital in Bangkok, six to remote villages in Karen state and the rest will be used in Thailand and Myanmar as needed," she said.
Mrs Thornton said the Burma Children Medical Fund was set up in 2006 to give children in Myanmar access to quality health care that they are unable to get in their own country.
Ms Singh said meeting with Saw Beebe and his family had proved an eye-opener.
"There's no health care available, not even basic stuff, but thanks to Kanchana and her BCMF team things are changing," she said. "It was so sad to hear why this little boy is permanently physically and mentally disabled because his mum could not get him to proper health care."
Ms Singh said the wheelchairs donated by Wheelchair For Kids will help Saw Beebe, and other kids in similar situations, get out of the confines of the home.
"Thankfully, Saw Beebe now has a wheelchair, he will be able to go outside his house and interact with the community, and mum will not have to carry him everywhere."
WHEELS OF FORTUNE
Mrs Thornton said that with the donation from Wheelchairs for Kids, her organisation is able to provide wheelchairs to several children in isolated villages in southeast Myanmar.
She said she is grateful to those people who worked to help build and deliver the wheelchairs for the children.
"The men and women at Wheelchairs for Kids are amazing … the Rotary Clubs in Western Australia, everybody who helped Saw Beebe, deserve a big thank you."
Mu Naw Gay is still hopeful that Saw Beebe will one day get better and continue his schooling.
"He used to be good at studying and loved going to school. He would get up, put on thanakar [a traditional cosmetic paste] and go to school without even eating his breakfast. I had to take food for him to school," she said.
But whatever the future holds, Mu Naw Gay said the wheelchair has made a huge difference not just to Saw Beebe, but to the whole family.
"This wheelchair will help us in many ways. We can now take him around the village. His brothers and sister can also push him around the house."
Phil Thornton is married to Kanchana Thornton.
Sitting tight: BCMF director Kanchana Thornton helps Saw Beebe adjust to his new wheelchair.
You've come a long way: The Wheelchairs for Kids workshop in Perth has shipped to 66 countries, and Saw Bebee's faced a difficult journey to Myanmar.
Helping hand: Saw Beebe's sister gets used to pushing him around the house in the wheelchair that was designed especially for him.