East Belfast family desperate to bring son home after 'miracle' recovery following motorcycle collision

The family of an East Belfast man have said they are desperate to bring him home as he is making a "miracle recovery" following a motorcycle collision.

Chandler Beatty was severely injured after his motorcycle collided with a van on the Newtownards Road on December 20, 2023, and knocked him into oncoming traffic where he was hit by another vehicle. He had been travelling to his job as a security guard at Connswater Shopping Centre.

Following this he spent four weeks in intensive care with his worried family being told that he would likely be paralysed and unable to breathe on his own or talk in the future.

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But, despite making "slow progress" with his recovery at first, in recent months his family say that Chandler has come on "leaps and bounds" as he is now able to pull himself up in bed, play with his younger siblings and is beginning to talk again.

Speaking to Belfast Live, his mum Andrea said that after 11 months in hospital she and her family are desperate to bring Chandler home so that he can continue his recovery surrounded by his family, friends and beloved dog Duke.

She said: "The past year has been very difficult for Chandler but despite the challenges he has faced the recovery he has made in recent months is nothing short of a miracle.

"We were told that he would be paralysed and never be able to talk or breathe on his own, but he has defied all of the odds and is making such amazing progress.

"While we will always be very grateful for the help, support and kindness he has received from all of the health care staff at hospital, we feel that now is the time to try and bring Chandler home so that he can continue his recovery surrounded by those who love him.

"We are a very big family and Chandler is the third oldest of his 12 siblings and a very important part of all of our lives. After seeing his recent progress we know that being back at home is the best place for him and thankfully we have an amazing support network of friends and neighbours who have done all they can for our family over the past 11 months while he has been in hospital and we know they will continue to be there for us when he returns.

"Our only issue is that we need to make adaptations to our home in order to bring Chandler back and we have been told that we will need to do this ourselves as our housing provider has said that they would prefer to move our family to a bigger property, but that could take years.

"We have launched a Gofundme page to try and raise some of the money to do this and we are very grateful to anyone who is able to lend us their support so that we can finally bring our son home."

If you would like to donate to the Beatty family's appeal you can do so via this link.

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