The proceeds of the raffle at last week’s Re:fresh Awards will fund an eight-month old baby through a year of Brainwave.
Everyone who bought a ticket will now become a sponsor of Liam who, despite having had a normal delivery, started experiencing severe and multiple seizures and spasms from one-week old.
Liam’s MRI scans revealed an abnormality in the left hemisphere of his brain and the EEG detected epilepsy.
Fortunately, after some time the seizures have been controlled by a cocktail of medication. However, as a result of the damage caused, Liam has physical delay in his development and is believed to have very poor vision.
Liam’s parents were anxious to start working on his physical problems so accepted a cancellation date at Brainwave, in Essex, for an assessment, travelling through the night from Ireland to attend. They also returned home overnight for Liam’s dad Brian to start work on the night shift the following day.
Liam worked extremely hard during the two days of his initial assessment, allowing Brainwave’s team of specialists to observe and evaluate his skills and try many new exercises with him.
A home-based therapy programme has been designed for Liam, to be carried out on a daily basis. The sequence of exercises starts with tasks that require less graded work to those requiring increasing recruitment of muscle activity. These exercises progress to encourage more co-ordinated work.
Liam’s parents were shown how to deliver the programme and are confident and committed to practising it daily to help their son unlock his potential.
The raffle raised £2,775, enough to cover therapy costs for 12 months.
Julie Verne, senior development manager at Brainwave, said: “A very big thanks to Re:fresh for choosing Brainwave to benefit from the event. We are simply delighted to have had the opportunity to share more of our work, raise our profile and raise enough money through the generosity of the attendees to fund a child through Brainwave. Thank you for making this all possible.
“Liam’s parents were told on Friday morning that their therapy costs for a year are fully funded and they are simply over the moon.”
For more information on Brainwave, go to www.brainwave.org.uk
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