my son Vinnie suffered moderate brain damage during his birth as a result of HIE (lack of oxygen to the brain) he was transferred to JCUH NICU for hypothermia treatment ( to save remaining brain cells )and he was placed on life support for 10 days. I made a promise to him there and then if he stayed with me I’d give him the best life and he’d have everything he needed. Fast forwards He is now an amazing cheeky beautiful determined 19 month old and who a range of disabilities/diagnoses such as cerebral palsy which affects his muscle function in his full Right side... his walking, sitting, feeding and breathing is effected by his CP/ brain injury. I am his main full time carer and while there is no cure for brain damage, a Childs full potential can be reached by therapy! i truly believe my son deserve the best shot at this life therefor I take my role very seriously, I've always taken Vinnie to private therapies from him being a very young age (he was in specialist sensory soft plays by 3 months old) and now he does conductive education x 2 weekly, hydrotherapy x1 weekly, occupational therapy 1x weekly all alongside his NHS services which was impacted greatly by covid... but I noticed it wasn't just me struggling to give my child the best and everything he needs. I've met so many families in a similar situation to mine, families who will do anything to give their child a shot at what's available out there... but I’ve also I've heard of families in the north east not far from here selling their cars and houses to pay for therapy more than once!

- you can follow our journey on Instagram @vinnieanscombyoung for more background information on Vinnie...

I'm completely out of my comfort zone when talking about this and its taken a lot for me to put Vinnie first and admit i now need some help... As you can imagine, private therapies come with a cost which me and Vinnie's dad have always paid using my carers allowance and Vinnie's dads wage as an electrician, however as you can imagine this leaves little room for any extra cash for things that Vinnie may need. in the past I have had to turn to my parents and ask them for the money to pay for equipment that has been recommended to me that he will benefit from that the NHS does not cover... initially i wanted to raise money to take him to America to visit a very popular brain injury rehabilitation center called Napa but after thinking carefully and realizing it will take a few years (until I'm able to get back to work) before I can take Vinnie there. so instead I thought why not buy the equipment that they would have used there? that way it doesn't have to be just Vinnie who benefits from using it? I've already started to create him his own therapy room which has been a dream of mine for about a year now, using the money people have kindly given for Christmas/birthdays and it will be moved into our new house once it’s built next year!

so the dream is that vinnie, his extra precious friends and other children in the north east who’s parents maybe can’t afford the private therapy we very fortunately can or families who don’t have the funds to buy equipment for their kids can come down to our home if they wanted to and use this as they please completely free of charge ! Or even if people just wanted to try ours out before they buy their own! Because every child like Vinnie who has no cure for their brain damage deserves access to therapy to give them the best shot in life after a rough start.... we just need these final pieces. so that's the purpose of the ball/ this fundraiser page, I want to raise money to buy a specialist treadmill (£3000-£5000) to hopefully one day get him up and stable on his feet and a hypervibe plate (£1000) to help build his weak muscles that are affected by cerebral palsy. both these pieces of equipment are used massively world wide by therapists/ rehab centers and I've saw amazing results with my own eyes...