‘I just get on with it because he’s my little boy’
A BOY with a rare chromosome disorder and his mum have both been nominated for Moorlands Heroes Awards.
Freddie Malkin, from Leek, has life limiting conditions and doctors fear he may never walk or speak.
But mum Natasha says the twoand-a-half-year-old is a joy to be around.
Now Freddie has now been put forward for a Child or Teenager of Courage Award and Natasha has been nominated for Carer of the Year.
Julie Hankinson, landlady of the Abbey Inn in Leek, has hosted fund-raisers for Freddie and was among those to put the pair forward.
She said: “Freddie is absolutely gorgeous. He melts everybody’s hearts and you just want to do the best you can for him.
“Natasha is the world’s best mummy. She works so hard to do the very best she can for Freddie.
“We’re happy to help in any way we can with raising money for specialist equipment.”
Freddie was born at 36 weeks and was later diagnosed with a rare chromosome deletion condition as well as Lissencaphaly, commonly known as ‘smooth brain.’
He had to undergo lifesaving surgery at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital just 48 hours after an operation to install a peg feed was completed. Freddie is now tubefed from an opening below the stomach.
Freddie is very small and currently measures just 75cm in height.
His mum Natasha, aged 34, has given up her work as a hairdresser to be Freddie’s full-time carer.
“He just battles through whatever gets thrown at him,” she said.
“Freddie has very complex needs but I just get on with it because he’s my little boy.
“I’m told that he’s complex and unique, that his condition is so rare that they don’t know of other children in the same position.”
It wasn’t until Freddie was around eight months old that tests confirmed his health conditions.
“I think I was seen as a neurotic first time mum to begin with, but then somebody started listening to me when he was about 16 weeks old,” she said.
“Freddie is an absolute little pleasure as long as he’s got 24/7 attention and you make sure that he’s in the correct position or in his specialist seat. If I popped him on the sofa he would just topple over.
“He’s basically glued to my side if he’s not in his specialist seating.
“His feeding technique is complicated, but he’s the happiest little boy going.
“He’s very socially aware and interactive. He communicates with his smile.”
Natasha says that Freddie’s future is very much unknown.
She said: “Doctors tell me that he has a life limiting condition. For me, Freddie will be who he will be. We’ve come across nobody with both of his conditions.
“Doctors don’t like to say a lot of good things. They say he won’t walk or talk but, as a parent, all you can do is hope. They tend to give you the negatives because anything more than that is then a bonus.”