Seat secures quality of life
BOY, FOUR, IS AMONG THOSE TO GAIN FROM CAMPAIGN
BETHANY Dawson has her hands full with her young family.
One of her four-year-old twins is disabled and needs round-the-clock care while she also look after sons Jack, three, and Luke 11.
Kole and Hayden McDonald were premature babies, born at 31 weeks, and while Kole went from strength to strength, it soon became clear that his brother was different.
Hayden now suffers from an undiagnosed genetic condition meaning he has global developmental delay, impaired vision, problems with his foot and is tube-fed.
He is one of just 90 people in the whole world to suffer from his specific genetic mutation and is believed to be the worst affected.
The Northumberland tot is also epileptic and non-verbal.
Despite his early arrival into the world and having to spend six weeks in intensive care, doctors don’t think his traumatic birth has caused any of his problems.
However, tests are being done to try to shed some light on what condition Hayden may have. To make his tricky life a little bit easier, Bethany got him a P-Pod seat, which acts as a posture support but most importantly, is somewhere comfortable for him to sit when he doesn’t need to be in his wheelchair.
But as he grows, he has become too big for the one he has and the next size up would set the Bedlington mum back almost £2,000.
Fortunately, Hayden has been chosen as one of the children to benefit from this year’s Sunshine Fund Go Bananas campaign.
The charity is dedicated to securing specialist equipment for local disabled children when they can’t get it by any other means.
Bethany, 28, said: “We still don’t have a full diagnosis but a doctor in America is studying this genetic mutation and thinks Hayden is the worst-affected out of everyone.”
She added: “He just hasn’t got anywhere to relax at the moment.
“It will mean he would be able to get comfortable and I could also wheel him into the garden in it and anywhere I need to go in the house.
“He hasn’t been able to go up to the top of the garden and see the rabbit. It will mean a lot more inclusion with his brothers.”