Just4Children are fundraising to provide Edward with specialist therapies to give him the best chance in life to reach his full potential.
Our son Edward is aged 19 months and has a diagnosis of Hemiplegia Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy. I had the perfect pregnancy with Edward but suffered a traumatic birth without any warning. As a result of the HIE birth event in January 2022 at the age of 4 months Edward was diagnosed with Epilepsy in January 2022, and most recently with Hemiplegia Cerebral Palsy, I expected this given all the research I did in those very early days when you should be lapping up every minute of your newborn baby, not researching your child’s diagnosis.
In spite of what life has thrown at Edward at such a young age he is thriving. However, he needs daily therapy to strengthen his body and learn skills for life. Edward attends NHS therapy which consist of physio and occupational therapy. We also attend private therapies too, including those mentioned and conductive education and hippotherapy too.
With the help of Just4Children we want to start a 3 week intensive CIMT course. Edward would benefit from this intensive upper limb therapy programme as he has right sided weakness in his arm. There is evidence that early intervention regarding neuroplasticity is key and therefore an intensive programme is recommended whilst Edward is so young. Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) is a treatment technique which aims to improve the arm motor ability and the functional use of the affected arm and hand. CIMT forces the use of the affected side by restraining the unaffected side. By engaging in this therapy Edward can learn to improve the motor ability of the more affected parts of his body. Our goal at present is to attend a 3 week intensive CIMT course in 2024.
Edward’s therapies are expensive but we want to give our boy the best chance in life to reach his full potential. NHS appointments alone are not enough for Edward, he needs input on a regular basis.
Any donation would be greatly appreciated and will help Edward’s development.
Thank you
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