Devoted dad mounting dizzy heights for son
A DAD from Queensbury will scale the dizzy heights of Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of his fouryear-old son with rare epilepsy.
Oscar Newsholme, four, was diagnosed with West Syndrome when he was 10 weeks old, which is characterised by infantile spasms - with most children then going on to have other kinds of seizures in later childhood. His devoted dad Jon Newsholme, 30, from West Dean Close, spoke about the difficulties of juggling his keyworker life, whilst providing support for his epileptic son, Oscar, his twin children Jacob and Grace, and his wife. Mr Newsholme, who works for Yorkshire Water, said: “It’s been difficult during lockdown because I’m a key worker. “Oscar’s immune system was shot to bits just before lockdown started, so he was put on a high dose of steroids to help ease his seizures.”
Mr Newsholme said his son has recently been diagnosed with the epilepsy syndrome Lennox-Gastaut, which is difficult to treat. Oscar suffers with seven to 12 seizures a day, and his dad said the last time he had a seizure-free day was on Christmas Day way back in 2016. “With everything my son goes through everyday, I try to raise as much money for Epilepsy Action by doing the annual Bradford 10k run,” said Mr Newsholme. “As part of the Epilepsy Action charity, I’ve signed up to climb Mount Kilimanjaro starting in September next year. “For this I’m raising a target of £5,000 through GoFundMe for the charity. I don’t like asking people for money especially during these hard times, but this money won’t directly help my family, but it will increase valuable research into epilepsy.” Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, is Africa’s tallest mountain and the world’s largest freestanding mountain.
You can donate to the JustGiving page by visiting: www. justgiving.com/fundraising/ kilimanjaro-2021
“I don’t like asking people for money especially during these hard times.”
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