Our son BEN GOODCHILD was born by natural childbirth on 16th March 2002. He developed as one would expect/hope and was walking at 10 months. At that time we lived next door to an elderly neighbour who had lived in her house for over 64 years. She had lost her husband one year previous and so Toni ( my wife ) would take Ben round to visit her daily.

10 days after Bens 1st birthday ( 26th March 2003 ) Toni visited the elderly lady with Ben. She used to say how much she looked forward to seeing them both.

There was a wall mounted electric fire that was in the off position . Toni was playing with Ben down on the floor and the elderly lady was sat two foot away on the sofa quite amused by Bens antics. Toni turned round to sit up next to the elderly lady and in these brief few seconds Ben lifted the grill on the fire, his right hand touched where an element had previously been removed and his left hand went against the front metal part of the fire.......This made up the circuit and Ben was instantly electrocuted, killed outright.

Toni thought at first that he had maybe had some sort of a fit but it soon become obvious that he was in fact dead. This was at 3.00pm......She dialled 999 and was guided through the CPR procedures......When the ambulance arrived 15 minutes later it was obvious that the paramedics had never been confronted by a baby who had been electrocuted and so they dialled for back up, so that two of them could work on Ben whilst getting him across to Southampton General Hospital........Back in 2003 they were not allowed to use a de-filbralator on Ben and this could only be attempted by A&E.

By the time they got Ben into the hospital it was 3.35pm and he had now been dead for 35 minutes......A team of 14 led by Dr. Marsh worked for 15 minutes in an effort to resuscitate him , but 15 minutes late Dr. Marsh walked across to Toni and said " Its been 50 minutes now and there will be brain damage.".....Toni said " No, this is not for Ben, please try one more time"......On that Dr.Marsh nodded at the crash team and miracously his heart started 50 minutes after he had been electrocuted.

On the night of his accident he was given only a 2% chance of survival. He had lost his sight and we were told that this was because the signal from the brain had been lost........Ben survived and special thanks has to be given to the Intensive Care department for this.

Ben was in hospital for over 3 months.....Thankfully his sight returned but then we were given the news we had dreaded.......Due to the oxygen starvation to his brain for over 50 minutes it had affected the motor neurone side of his brain which is the part that gives us the ability to move......They told us that Ben would never walk again and as the brain damage was global, they did not believe he would ever be able to speak or communicate with us.

Ben returned home in the June of 2003 and one can only describe the next 24 months as heartbreaking......Ben would scream for long periods of time .But never did Toni and I give up hope.

Ben will be 16 on March 16th 2018 and never has a day gone by over the last 15 years when he has not amazed us with his sheer determination to succeed in life.

He is unable to move once laid into bed, cannot sit independently and will require 24 hour care for the rest of his life........................But Ben has defied the doctors as he understands everything that is being said to him and communicates back. He has a fantastic personality and sense of humour and is a joy / inspiration to all that spend time with him.

Although he can finger feed himself , he is not able to hold a cup to be able to give himself a drink......He has limited amount of use of his right hand and fingers and is a whizz kid on his I Pad / computer and we firmly believe that Ben will at some stage of his life be able to work.

Now this brings me on to the subject of Post 16 education ....... Ben has expressed a wish to attend Treloars College in Alton Hampshire from September 2018 but the local authority has already made a decision that they are not willing to fund his choice of college......... We all know how much local councils are under pressure to save monies and it is not Southampton City Council that I blame for this descion but central government, who continue to force cut backs on our special needs kids, whilst wasting millions on less important/ deserving sectors of communities.....I believe the attitude is "they can't fight back, so let's hit the easy targets"

Ben has been offered a position at a mainstream college but as Southampton does not have even ONE suitable college, this would involve him spending around 90 minutes on transport supplied by the local authority to get him to college and possibly the same time in journey time home............This college would cost around £23,000 a year and the transport costs would also be £23,000 a year. Total £46,000.00

But there are many reasons why Ben has chosen a college that he can board at Mon -Fri. To wake up and be ready for education rather than a 90 journey......To improve his social life and independence in the real world.....The list is endless....Some of Bens college days at the nominated college would start at 10.00am but finish by 1pm.......... So 3 hours travelling to achieve 3 hours at college.

As Ben stops breathing for period of up to 45 secs all through the night he is on a sleep apnea machine with a mask and gets very tired daytime.......Sat on a bus for 90 mins every morning is just not conclusive with obtaining an education as he would struggle to,stay awake.

Treloars College has an amazing reputation in achievement with special needs young adults but the fees are in the region of £140,000 a year. Plus £8800.00 in transport to the college on a Monday and then return on a Friday. But the BEST comes at a price.

As any parent of any special needs child would be aware.....We all want the best for our child.....we want to see them have the chance to fulfill their maximum potential.

The local authority will argue that their only obligation is to pay for a college that meets Bens needs, but as their nominated college for Ben does not even offer the main course he has chosen which is Textiles & Design how can they say they are fulfilling his needs....They are purely interested in finding the cheapest option.

So from what we know Treloars will cost per year ( from aged 16 - 19 ) minus what amount the local authority have already indicated that they will pay for with the college they have offered we have a shortfall of £90,000 per year x 3

Please, please help us to give this incredible young man the education that he deserves......He has come so far, and can go a lot further with the right support.

Ben had a compensation court case that ran from 2003 - 09 which eventually failed as the acting Barrister who we thought had been working on the same no win, no fee as the solicitors said to us 5 weeks before the case was due to go to the High Court, that he now did not fancy our chance of success and unless we were prepared to pay his fee upfront (15k) that he would not go to court to represent Ben, so we never got the chance to see if he would have been successful......During the six years that the case went on, we did however discover why Ben had been electrocuted by the fire that was in the off position.......Whoever had originally installed the fire had reversed the live and neutral at the back of the fire which meant that even in the off position there would have been 240volts going through the elements.

Someone had at some time tried to replace one of the elements, probably discovered they were not longer available and had then not put back the retaining screw that fastened the safety grill, which allowed Ben to lift it ( in those split seconds whilst Toni turned to sit up on the old ladies sofa)

Ben was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it was to prove a very very tragic accident.

And the rest is now history

Andrew & Toni Goodchild .