Charity match planned to help Reece Kempley from Stepney out of a wheelchair

Neighbours and wellwishers are holding a fundraiser to help pay for therapy for Reece Kempley after he was paralysed when a prankster pushed him off a pier into the sea while on holiday.

Reece Kempley confined to a wheelchair after a prankster pushed him into the sea from a holiday pier. Picture: Mike Brooke - Credit: Mike Brooke

They are organising a charity football match on June 10 to help pay for the therapy the 23-year-old from Stepney needs to help get him out of a wheelchair.

Reece is in Poland this week receiving intense treatment to get some movement back in his legs—that therapy is too expensive in London.

He is living temporarily in a housing charity’s ground-floor flat in Millharbour, on the Isle of Dogs, while his mum campaigns for an permanent adapted Tower Hamlets council property.

Reece Kempley confined to a wheelchair after a prankster pushed him into the sea from a holiday pier. Picture: Mike Brooke - Credit: Mike Brooke

“We need £25,000 for physiotherapy,” she told the East London Advertiser. “I feel bad having to ask the public to help, but we have no choice. We are desperate because my son is being written off.”

Their second-floor flat at Stepney Green Court is unsuitable for Reece and his wheelchair.

Reece was on life support for a week after the incident on the Greek Isle of Corfu last summer. He was later flown home and spent 13 weeks in the Royal London Hospital.