Charlie’s Challenge

Charlie is a very happy, bright and gregarious 3 year old child but his CP means he is unable to walk unaided.  Undeterred, he uses a Pacer walker and braces on his feet and ankles to help him get around independently.

Costs for private multi-disciplinary assessments and treatments like the BoBarth centre can be as much as £4000 for a week block!  Assessments of gait using video technology can be up to £1000 per report.  As we now only get 1 NHS physiotherapy session every 2 months hopefully you can understand that we would like to raise funds to help Charlie as best we can... UPDATE- due to resolving staff issues we are now getting an NHS session every other week- something that improved as a result of this campaign?

Charlie was born prematurely after a very difficult pregnancy, he tried to arrive at 30 weeks gestation but his mum held on until 35 weeks.   As a result, he suffered brain damage called Peri-Ventricular Leukomylasia (PVL) and subsequently spastic diplegic Cerebral Palsy (CP).   He was 4lbs when he arrived on 3.11.2011.  We were able to bring him home 10 days later on the 13.11.2011- our 1st wedding anniversary! 

Charlie has already undergone a number of procedures including a MRI under anaesthetic, a bilateral recession (eye surgery) and Botox under GA in his spastic legs. 

Spasticity is Charlie's big problem- a bit like constant cramp it pulls and tightens his muscles making them unable to relax, it can be painful and is very tiring. He undergoes rigorous daily physiotherapy (which we have to perform) and has to take medication to help control his spasticity.  He copes remarkably with all his treatments and this is testament to his character and spirit.

Unfortunately, Charlie isn't suitable for surgery like SDR (selective dorzal rhizoplasty) at present as he is not strong enough or have good enough balance.  This may change in the future but at the moment the best we can hope to provide is as much physiotherapy as we can to help develop his strength and conditioning.

Both my wife (a Police Officer) and myself (an NHS Paediatric Audiologist) want to provide the best for our son to achieve his potential and help him gain his independence; to do this we need to raise funds and we hope that this is where you could help.  We are hard working public servants and yet we can only do so much. NHS provision is only quite basic and as the private physiotherapy, pacers, adaptive car seating, pushchairs, disability bikes all cost so much we wonder if you could be so good as to contribute to our fundraising?    Big or small, any assistance you could give would help a small boy grow into the man we know he can become.    

We are planning, runs, bike rides, auctions and more.  Please see facebook and www.charlies-dad.org (a blog about being the parent of a disabled child) for details