Arthur is 5 years old and lives in Henham, Essex. Born prematurely at 28+1 weeks while attending a wedding in Verona, Italy, Arthur suffered a brain haemorrhage resulting in hydrocephalus following an extremely challenging few days. We were advised to say our goodbyes by his bedside, but Arthur refused to stop fighting. He spent 8 weeks battling to become fit enough to fly back to the UK and continue fighting in Addenbrookes and Harlow NICUs. In total Arthur spent 108 days fighting to get home, recovering from lung, heart and metabolic issues. His first year saw a number of brain surgeries after VP shunt failures and multiple admissions for respiratory illnesses.
After his determined recovery, Arthur has been left with bilateral hearing loss, cerebral palsy and global developmental delay and is non verbal.
In spite of these issues, Arthur is the happiest little boy youll come across. He loves to laugh. He loves company and thrives in school surrounded by his friends. Arthur has exceeded his neurosurgery teams expectations by getting as far as he has, and were determined to help him go as far as he can.
Arthur is able to sit unaided but is unable to stand and walk by himself. He uses a walker under close supervision. His cerebral palsy presents in stiff limbs on his right side, his foot in a natural tip-toe shape, and limited motor function in his right hand.
Arthur has been undertaking private physio sessions from April 2022 and the improvement he has made is remarkable. He will continue to need regular physio and therapies to help him continue to gain motor function and muscle strength to give him the best chance of walking independently and gaining full use of his right hand and arm.
He has also been working hard with a speech and language therapist to help him gain other forms of communication like mackton and pecs boards and the use of a an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device
We have worked really hard at fundraising and have been able to use some one of funds already raised for Arthur’s weekly physio, physio blocks and speech and language sessions alongside a walking frame, so we need to raise further funds to enable us to reach our goal.
Thank you.
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