{"id":10092,"date":"2025-07-03T12:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T11:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/?p=10092"},"modified":"2025-07-03T13:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T12:01:19","slug":"bringing-george-closer-to-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/bringing-george-closer-to-home","title":{"rendered":"Bringing George closer to home"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"embed-container\" style=\"margin-bottom: 20px;\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kqGPyHcAWwk\" frameborder=\"0\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><strong>Take a moment to meet George and find out how gaze controlled technology, introduced with care, expertise and long-term dedication, has given his quality of life a major boost and and kept him in close touch with his family.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>George lives in a care setting away from his family due to his motor neurone disease. Over time our specialist teams have introduced and supported highly personalised assistive technology from three of our core services &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/how-we-can-help\/play-video-games\">video game access<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/how-we-can-help\/use-your-eyes-for-independence\">StarGaze<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/how-we-can-help\/help-with-medical-isolation\">BubbleBusters<\/a> &#8211; and this video shows him using gaze control to take part in family home life and enjoy playing Minecraft with his eldest son.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI used to run around a lot with our eldest son,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not able to do that physically now but playing Minecraft with him enables me to run, mine, build, fight zombies and fly with him, which feels amazing. It\u2019s incredible to share the experience with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWorking with SpecialEffect has been life-changing. The value of giving people with physical disabilities the freedom to play and move around in virtual worlds cannot be underestimated. And the robots offer the ability to explore the real world even if all you can use is your eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re very grateful to George and his family for letting us share the impact of the technology and our specialised lifelong support. It\u2019s a privilege to be part of his journey, and we\u2019ll continue to support him and his family as and when they need us in the future.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>It costs over \u00a32M every year to maintain the specialist expertise, tenacity and resources that lets us make such life-changing interventions. <a href=\"https:\/\/specialeffect.enthuse.com\/donatemonthly#!\/\">A regular donation of just \u00a315 a month<\/a> will help us continue to provide this vital \u2013 and free \u2013 lifelong support.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ufeff\ufeff Take a moment to meet George and find out how gaze controlled technology, introduced with care, expertise and long-term dedication, has given his quality of life a major boost and and kept him in close touch with his family. George lives in a care setting away from his family due to his motor neurone&#8230; <a class=\"view-article\" href=\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/bringing-george-closer-to-home\">View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-study"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bringing George closer to home - SpecialEffect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.specialeffect.org.uk\/news\/bringing-george-closer-to-home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bringing George closer to home - SpecialEffect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\ufeff\ufeff Take a moment to meet George and find out how gaze controlled technology, introduced with care, expertise and long-term dedication, has given his quality of life a major boost and and kept him in close touch with his family. 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