I’d Do Anything To Help My Son
Mum of two, Rebecca Turnbull, faced her fears to show her son she knew what it was like to feel scared
trapped to the wing of a biplane with one arm in plaster, the other holding on for dear life, Rebecca caught sight of her 11 year old son, Matthew, waving from below. As petrified as she was, it was too late to back out now.
Matthew was born three weeks prematurely with heart and lung problems and had to be resuscitated three times shortly after his birth.
“He had a productive cough, he couldn’t sleep because he struggled breathing and he couldn’t crawl, he would just drag himself,” says Rebecca.
“They questioned all sorts of things – cystic fibrosis, various heart conditions…
SAfter four years of going to doctors, I was at my wits’ end.”
Then Matthew suffered a seizure. It lasted over an hour, he was rushed to hospital and had to be resuscitated in pouring rain at the side of the road.
Fortunately, he survived and it was only then, after a brain scan, that doctors discovered he had cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
Matthew was put on medication and saw an occupational therapist to help build the strength in his left side. Rebecca gave up her career in nursing to care for him and after two years of wearing splints and daily physio, he’d shown a huge improvement.
Although the medication helped control his seizures, Matthew would never know when he might have one.
“He kept saying ‘you don’t understand – you don’t have it, you have no idea what it’s like to be that
frightened, Mummy,’ and that got me thinking,” says Rebecca. “I thought what can I do that is hard hitting and will scare the absolute living daylights out of me so I can say to him, ‘I know what it’s like to be really scared’.”
Rebecca decided to confront her two biggest fears – heights and travel sickness and signed up for a sky dive to raise money for Young Epilepsy which had given the family support.
Six months later, Rebecca found herself at an aerodrome in Kent, petrified.
“I was in such a state, I felt sick,” she says. “I was shaking the whole way up, then when the plane door opened and I saw how high we were at 12,000ft, it was terrifying, but, I thought if Matthew can put his life in someone’s hands, I’ve got to show him I can, too. I screamed for most of the free fall, but I made it down alive!”
Rebecca raised more than £1,500 and a year later, she decided to do a wing walk.
Like before, she was dreading it, then two weeks before it, she tripped and broke her arm.
“They said if you can keep your arm up in the air you can still do it,” she says. “So I thought, let’s go for it.”
“Matthew didn’t want me to do it and I was petrified about falling off, but I thought it’ll only last 10 minutes, Matthew has to live with epilepsy the rest of his life. They said, ‘point your thumbs down if you want to stop’ – which I couldn’t because my arm was in plaster, and ‘wave your arms around if you want to go faster’. But trying to keep your arm up with a plaster cast and the wind pushing you backwards was really hard and half way around the pilot started accelerating. I was so relieved when we landed.”
Over the last two years, Rebecca has raised more than £10,000 organising events such as sponsored car washes and fun days.
Young Epilepsy is the national charity for children and young people with epilepsy, which offers support and information. To find out more go to WWW.YOUNG EPILEPSY.ORG.UK