From Ireland to Peshawar: This Irish woman has dedicated her life to treating cerebral palsy in Pakistan
Yvonne Frizzell was a young woman when she first came to Pakistan with her husband in 1984. Years before she met him, her husband had taken an unlikely road trip from England to Bangladesh. He fell in love; after marrying Frizzell he brought her to Peshawar “looking for some excitement”. Frizzell – a paedreatic physiotherapist trained at the Royal London Hospital – found more than an adventure here. She found a cause.
The couple ended up staying in Peshawar for nearly six years. They brought their son to Pakistan when he was just two months old; their daughter, too, was born here. During this period, another young man became a part of Frizzell’s life. It was Akbar Saifullah Khan, a two-year-old boy with cerebral palsy.
Not many in Pakistan were equipped with the expertise required to deal with Khan’s ailment when he was growing up. But his luck turned when his mother met Frizzell at a social gathering. Mrs Saifullah Khan told Frizzell about her son, and soon the medical practitioner started working with him.
Frizzell was a big influence on Khan as he was growing up. In 1990, when she moved back to Ireland, eight-year-old Khan moved to the country with her. He spent the next 13 years at a school there.
Akbar's progress spurred an awakening. Mrs Khan knew that not everyone could afford to send their children abroad for treatment. Having seen firsthand what a mother goes through having a differently-abled child, she wanted to be a part of the solution. When her now 21-year-old son was moving back, she floated an idea for Frizzell: why not open an institute to help cerebral palsy patients in Pakistan, free of charge?