Bandon man gifted car after Southern Star plea

A GENEROUS benefactor has given a man from Bandon a car after reading an article in The Southern Star about him being housebound during lockdown.

The woman gave Rafal Kolibowski of Oaklawn, Castle Road, Bandon, who has motor neuron disease, the specially-adapted car after reading how the family couldn’t afford one of their own.

‘What this person did was an amazing gesture,’ said Rafal. The mysterious benefactor initially wrote to Rafal, but he thought it was a joke.

Later, when they met for coffee, he said she just took the papers from the car and handed them to him.

Describing her as ‘a young and unusually nice person,’ Rafal said she wouldn’t hear of having her name featured in a follow-up article.

‘She asked me not to reveal her personal details. Amazing, right?’ said Rafal, who also did something rather special in return.

Because his illness is unpredictable, he told the woman his wife will pass on the car to another person for free ‘when I won’t need it anymore.’

Rafal thanked Sen Tim Lombard for highlighting the situation in his local newspaper, saying, ‘I never thought that one email to a senator could change that much, so quickly.’

He also thanked The Southern Star. ‘It shows that we can help each other selflessly. It restores faith in people,’ he added.

Rafal repeated his call for the transport scheme for disabled drivers to be changed and made available to everyone.

‘Just because I got the car doesn’t solve the problem,’ he added.

‘This is a wonderful gesture by an anonymous person who reached out to help a man in very great need,’ said Sen Lombard.