Inspiring parents give disabled children home
ACOUPLE were inspired to foster children with disabilities after their own son was born with a rare brain condition that left him blind in one eye.
Romanii Fitton, 31 and her fiancee, Jamie Bork, 33 from Bacup had their first child Jenson prematurely.
And as Romanii’s waters broke early, doctors soon discovered the baby had a rare condition, septo-optic dysplasia, which affects only one in every 10,000 births.
Although lucky enough to have a relatively normal life, Jenson, now 10, is blind in one eye and has behavioural difficulties.
However, looking after their son inspired the couple to foster other children in similar situations and over seven years, Romanii and Jamie have fostered eight teenagers that have disabilities and mental health struggles, wanting them to have an understanding and respectful upbringing.
Unfortunately though, this had to be put on the backburner last year when Jamie was diagnosed with cancer and underwent vigorous treatment.
Romanii said: “To begin with, we really wanted to foster children with disabilities, because we thought that if God forbid anything was to happen to us, we don’t have any immediate family that would take care of our children and the worry is always, who would look after Jenson.
“The other two, haven’t got any difficulties but Jenson needs that extra care.
“We always thought that we’d want him [Jenson] to go to someone like us, who would take care of him and understand his needs.
“Understanding is the main thing for Jenson, just understanding and being patient.
“That’s what we felt we could bring to fostering, that understanding for children with learning difficulties.”
Romanii and Jamie’s backgrounds are also what contributed to their decision to foster.
She said: “Me and Jamie came from very poor backgrounds.
“My mum and dad were both heroin addicts, Jamie comes from a broken family, his mum left one day and he’s never seen her since when he was a little boy.
“So, we’ve just got that understanding of children who haven’t got the parents.
“We’ve even come across social workers who didn’t fully understand, you know, the situation that these children were in because they’ve come from the perfect, you know, mum and dad, family upbringing.”
Romanii and Jamie have fostered eight children that stay with the family for around two and a half years at a time.
However, this had to stop when Jamie was given his cancer diagnosis, when the doting dad noticed a lump on his neck one day.
Despite being healthy, Jamie visited the doctors and was almost immediately given the sad news.
At that point, Romanii was also caring for her grandad who had dementia and her uncle who is severely autistic, both of whom needed 24-hour care.
Romanii said: “I took over the majority of that, as Jamie was the main carer, so I had two children at the time and our foster child as well.
“So with him starting the treatment, we were warned that he was going to become quite unwell, but we just felt like we didn’t have any other option but to say, we’ve got to step back now and concentrate on Jamie and our children until he’s well enough.”
Taking a day at a time, the family got through the particularly difficult times, despite Romanii’s grandad passing away in the midst of it all.
“Jamie however, has completed a strong dose of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but is waiting to be cancer free for five years.
Now, Romanii and Jamie are continuing to raise awareness of septo-optic dysplasia and together, have written a children’s book, centring around a child that is visually impaired.
They say the story starts from a child “struggling to get up in the morning” and what they may have to go through to get themselves dressed and how hard it is to do everyday tasks without their glasses. This has been inspired by their eldest, Jenson who lives with septo-optic dysplasia - a rare condition that affects early brain development.
When Romanii was pregnant with her son, her waters broke early and medical staff undertook a scan on her unborn baby.
There, they found abnormalities of the brain and as soon as Jenson was born, the family went to Manchester for further scans and confirmed it was septooptic dysplasia.
The condition is on somewhat of a spectrum, affecting each child or person differently.
For Jenson who is now 11, he is “lucky” enough to be able to function on his own, but is completely blind in his left eye and has behavioural difficulties including ADHD and autism.
“Even now as he’s getting older, Jenson’s behaviour
can still come across as a little odd at times and we do always get those looks and those stares,” Romanii said.
“People sometimes whisper behind our backs, not including him in things because sometimes, just the impulsiveness of him.”
Romanii and Jamie have three children together, Jenson, 10, Jett, four, and Ember who is 12 weeks old. The couple are also looking to get married, having got engaged just under a year ago.