Our son Alexander was born in July 2016 and suffered a brain injury after a very sudden placental abruption during labour. He was in intensive care for a week and remained in hospital for the first month of his life. We were told by the consultants at this point that he would have cerebral palsy, a lifelong disability that affects coordination and movement. This completely devastated us but all we could do was to wait and see how it would manifest itself in him as every child is different. It has been an agonising wait.

As the years have gone by, despite all of his challenges and missing his developmental milestones, we have gotten to know our little boy and celebrated all his small achievements . He is unable to sit or walk yet and to make things more complicated, he also has a floppy airway which leads to complications with breathing, increased risk of chest infections, reflux which then started us on our journey of having gastrostomy surgery so he is now 100% tube fed. This summer he also suddenly started having seizures, although medical staff are reluctant to diagnose epilepsy just yet. Sadly he certainly has had more than his fair share of hospital visits.

Despite all of this he is a bright and happy 2 year old. Anyone who knows him loves his cheeky smile, sense of humour and gravity defying hair style. Despite being non verbal, Alex is very communicative and loves listening to stories, giggles when being tickled and always tries hard during physio or hydro sessions (if he doesn't fall asleep!) Above all he loves his big sis, she provides endless wonder and entertainment for him and it would mean so much for him to play with her like other younger siblings of her friends.

We first heard about The Movement Centre through friends of ours earlier this year and became very interested in their approach towards teaching children like Alex movement control. With help from their specialist physios and bioengineers we believe Target therapy will be life changing for Alex.

With your help, we can complete a year's worth of therapy and obtain a bespoke supportive standing frame - travelling to the centre in Oswestry, Shropshire every 8 weeks for an afternoon of intensive therapy all the way from bonny Edinburgh, Scotland is no mean feat! We went to visit them for our first assessment in November 2018 and were pleased to learn of Alex's potential for the therapy.

Sadly there is very limited funding for this treatment currently, with parents being encouraged to seek funding through charities or creating avenues like this one for family and friends to help. Those of you who know us well, know that Kakay gave up work to be Alex's full time carer when it became clear that life with Alex was going to be a bit full on. Whatever savings we have is being ploughed into this and into making our home accessible for Alex. Its daunting as hell and a lot to take on for 2019. To top this off, we will be sure to take up daft physical challenges and various other events to raise money in aid of The Movement Centre's work and welcome any support you can offer...we're thinking 'Team Alex Tough Mudder' challenge...nominations for team members welcome!

Thank you for spending the time to read Alex's story, if you don't follow us already - we regularly post on Instagram Alex_the_great_cpkid, please look out for us and follow us on there. You'll hear from us lots anyway, but once we get started with the therapy (aiming for March 2019)..I'll be giving more updates on his progress!

If you would like to read more about The Movement Centre, and the wonderful work they do, please follow this link: The Movement Centre

Big Hugs,

Kakay, Kit, Sophia and Big Hair Nanoo Alex