Welcome to my page for my son Jack.

My little boy is 3 years old bright and very beautiful. He is my first child and was wanted so much by myself and his dad. We are doting parents and love that Jack is our little boy, but this came at a price.

After a difficult birth and start to life on the special care unit, Jack failed to develop in his first year, to date we do not know the reason why, but Jack was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. We have searched tirelessly for something to help our little boy, because we have dreams for him to experience what we did when we were growing up.

The community professionals have been good, but the severity of Jacks condition required more intensive therapy, which wasn’t available in the community.  Last year we found a service which was able to invest their time to help Jack learn the smallest of things like, sitting independently, rolling, crawling and maybe one day walk?

I know this may take a while but we are seeing good results already. Conductive Education is NO easy way out, it’s NO miracle cure, and Jack is going to have to work extra hard and so are we!

They say this therapy is a lifestyle, which may equip us with the skills to help our little boy too.

We don’t know what to expect from the future, it’s just the here and now that matters. We have a 5 month old baby too who requires our attention and travelling to The Legacy is tiring on myself and Jack.

Therefore we have pledged to raise £30,000 to continue Jacks therapy at The Legacy and to bring this service into Barrow one day per week, for other children with disabilities to benefit from.

We want to achieve this goal for Jack who will represent other children of Barrow who suffer with disabilities on a daily basis.

Now I would like to leave you with this poem which sums up the feelings and grieving process of having a child with a disability, but also the positive and light it brings to your life when you finally raise your head high enough to see.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND: Emily Perl Kingsley.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Call the Appeals Manager if you want to help contact Jo 07789228213 or e-mail joemawds@btinternet.com To make a donation via your mobile simply text:

TLRH59 £5 to 70070 (or other amounts £1, £2, £3, £4, £10)