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Dominic’s Story.
Hi Everybody,
I hope you will be generous with your donations to this little known charity. If you will indulge me, I will give you some background as to how this condition has affected my son Dominic Noah Porter, and his family.
At 16 weeks gestation my wife and I were informed that she was carrying twins, no mean feat for an old man of 52 and an old bird of 48, especially when you consider that two years earlier we had been blessed with our first child, Myles, also a boy.
At the 26 week gestation period, during a routine scan, we were to receive what can only be described as devastating news – twin two, as Dominic was then known, had had a growth spurt to his brain area, and the only possible explanation was hydrocephalus (water on the brain). We were taken into a side ward and a professor came to explain our options. She fully explained the condition and stated that at best, if the foetus was left to mature and survive, there was a strong possibility he would be blind, deaf and possibly in a vegetative state, and then she offered my wife a selective termination. When we enquired as to what exactly this was, we were told, quite bluntly, that at 35 weeks gestation mum would be induced and the twins would be delivered by caesarean section, and you would Christen one and bury the other. Imagine our horror, when what should have been one of the happiest times in anyone’s life, was turning into a nightmare. We both agreed that however God had blessed us, we would not carryout the professor’s wishes and terminate one of the twins, whatever handicap had afflicted him. At 32 weeks we received the fantastic news that, quite unexplained, twin two’s head was now at the normal size and at worst he should only suffer with some form of learning difficulty.
That has materialised as Dyspraxia with a high risk of Aspergers Syndrome. Just to clarify those points, Dominic does not readily accept change and requires order and structure in his daily routine. He also finds it difficult to communicate, verbally or in writing. The type and level of Dominic’s Dyspraxia means he cannot indentify the first and last letters in each word, which means he does not pronounce those letters, and he also has difficulty with his fine motor skills, which means he has trouble holding a pen or pencil. Along with his lack of co-ordination, concentration and very short attention span, life can sometimes be a trial for him. However he is the most affectionate and loving child I have had the pleasure of knowing, he is a real tryer and does not let his shortcommings affect his lovely personality. He makes me proud to be his Dad, and as I said earlier Dominic is one a pair of non-identical twins and the other twin, Allister, is fit and healthy in every way, and they have an older brother, Myles, who is just a typical boy.
I hope I have not bored you with Dominic’s story and I hope you will willingly donate just a pound (the average cost of a birthday card) to help this very underfunded charity.
Thank you in anticipation, not from me, but from my boy Dominic.
Graham Porter.
