This year Marc & I have signed up to compete in the Cambridge Half Marathon on Sunday 5^th March and
The World Run on Sunday 7^th May. 
We hope to raise some much-needed funds for the Erb’s Palsy Group as our way of saying thank you to them for all the support they give parents during a very difficult and emotional time.

We hadn’t heard of Erb’s Palsy until May 2015, when our gorgeous little nephew Ben came into our lives.

This is a small part of Ben’s story so far, written by his mother, Grace:

“On 21st May 2015, just after 7am, my beautiful baby boy Ben was born weighing in at just under 10 pounds. Ben had a difficult birth, during which his left shoulder got stuck and the 5 nerves in his arm, known as the brachial Plexus, were damaged. His entire arm and hand were completely paralysed. His whole arm just lay limply at his side while his right arm windmilled around.

It was very scary as I had never heard of this condition before and didn't know what to expect. We were told to swaddle his arm against his body for 10 days to allow some healing to the damaged nerves.  Then we had a physiotherapist come round weekly to monitor Ben's progress. She taught me the exercises to do with Ben and made it clear these had to be done 10 times a day as otherwise his arm would stiffen. However it soon became apparent that it wasn't healing well. He could raise his arm a little and wiggle his fingers but he had no elbow flexion at all. Eventually, we were referred to a specialist clinic in Glasgow.

In January 2016 Ben underwent microscopic surgery to remove scar tissue from the nerves. He had a tendon transfer to keep his shoulder joint in place and a muscle release to aid his range of movement. We are very thankful to the wonderful surgical team at Glasgow hospital and are very hopeful that Ben will regain movement of his arm.

We are also incredibly thankful to the Erb’s Palsy support group. When I first found this group I was very upset and was trying to come to terms with what had happened. This group has given me strength and hope. I don't know where I would be without the Erb’s Palsy Group.”

The group offers support and advice in a number of ways.  They have a telephone helpline for parents to call and obtain accurate information about treatments available, or for general advice on types of equipment or benefits available to the children as well as a very active online Facebook support page. They are able to put parents in contact with other families in their locality and have recently started to offer free loan of swimming aids for the children. Every year they host a family Fun day, with entertainment for the children and guest speakers for the parents.  A travel fund makes grants available to parents to help with the costs of travelling to and from hospital for surgical treatments.

Their aims are to support families in any way possible and to raise awareness of this little known condition.  In addition to this, they hold a Study Day every year for professionals and a successful Awareness Campaign.

The group doesn’t receive any formal funding from Government or statutory agencies and doesn’t have any paid workers so all monies that are donated do go directly towards helping the children and their
families. 

www.erbspalsygroup.co.uk