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JAMIE BINGHAMS STORY
On 30th January 2013 our lives were turned upside down when our darling 13 year old son Jamie was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He had surgery I week later and thankfully 98 percent of the tumour was successfully removed. The tumour was growing from his brainstem into the fourth ventricle of his brain. He had been suffering from morning nausea and vomiting for many months beforehand but as he had no headaches unfortunately no one suspected anything so sinister.
After the 7 and a half hour operation Jamie had some problems with his vision and speech but we were assured these would resolve in time and he would make a full recovery. 9 days after his operation we received the wonderful news that the tumour was benign and apart from 6 monthly MRI scans for 5 years Jamie would not require any further treatment.
The same day we had his results the stitches were removed from the back of Jamie's head and that evening his temperature sky rocketed. Over the next couple of days he started to become very unwell with headaches, vomiting and an extremely high temperature. An MRI scan was done and it was confirmed Jamie had contracted meningitis. As you can imagine we were absolutely devastated. After getting through so much with such a positive outcome for this to happen was utterly horrendous. He was started on antibiotics and continued these for several weeks.
Unfortunately the meningitis caused many problems including hydrocephalus (extra fluid around the brain) therefore he had to have a shunt inserted to help control this. Jamie will have this shunt in his head for the rest of his life. It was then discovered he needed a further shunt as cystic collections were forming near his brainstem due to the blockages the meningitis had caused. Overall our wonderful son endured and survived 14 brain operations within 12 months due to complications with his shunts and the meningitis.
Jamie is home now after spending 18 months and 2 birthdays in hospital. At present he still requires the use of a ventilator via a tracheostomy for a large part of the day and all night. This is something which we hope he can be weaned from once he gains strength.
Jamie is currently attending a special school due to his physical limitations where he gets physio once a week and hydrotherapy once a week. We feel he would benefit greatly from more input than this so would like to increase this by paying for extra physio along with extra educational tuition to allow him to try to catch up with the 2 years of education he has missed. Jamie always works extremely hard and puts every effort into whatever he does. It is exhausting for him and baby steps every day but he never refuses anything and remains positive, polite and hard-working. He has a long way to go due to the amount of time he has been in bed and all the trauma his body has endured but his therapists are delighted with the progress he is making. Jamie will be getting a walking frame to use at home in the near future but as our house is of traditional design and we lost a public room due to the changes we had to make to accommodate Jamies needs, we do not have the space for him to practice his walking so are hoping to build a room on the back of the house to allow this to happen for him. This again takes money which we currently don't have and we desperately want to give him every opportunity to recover as fast as possible and get back the life he deserves so much.
Words cannot describe the pride, love and admiration we feel for our son. He has always been and continues to be a remarkable boy - intelligent, kind, polite, thoughtful, brave and handsome to name just a few of his qualities. Since he was around 7 or 8 years old he has wanted to be a zoologist and he had chosen his school subjects accordingly to achieve his dream. He also told us another of his dreams was to be a really good dad. He wants to have lots of children of his own and teach them everything he knows. Jamie will be a fantastic father one day as he has all the qualities required for this job.
Jamie has suffered more this past 2 years than anyone should in their lifetime but throughout this time has continued to be incredibly brave, patient and always smiling, no matter what he is suffering. He has all the qualities he needs to get through this and get his life back. He is determined, strong and bright and has an incredible lust for life. We do not doubt for one moment that he will get there in the end but unfortunately this is going to take time and money.
We are setting up this funding page as a cry for help to anyone who knows Jamie, knows of his story or even if you have never met him but his story has touched you, please could you consider sparing a few pounds towards our wonderful boys future.
Life is so very precious, these past 2 years have taught us this and nothing is more important than the health and happiness of our children.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read Jamie's story......together we will get this wonderful young man back on his feet and back to the life that he loves and deserves.
With much love and appreciation,
Jamie's family xxxxxx