Mumopensnew disability centre
A mum has opened a disability day centre for her son in Rusper. Vian Jiawook opened the Re:Sight centre at Stammerham Business Park to support her 33-year-old son Mustafa, better known as Taffy.
Vian said Taffy was diagnosed by Kings College London Hospital as having a very rare genetic mutation disorder that called Bosch Boonstra Shaaf Obtic Atrophy Syndrome.
This means Taffy is blind, severely autistic and epileptic, with repetitive and limited understanding “like a toddler of two years old”, Vian says.
Vian said: “Taffy has very limited communication skills, so he lives in his very own bubble, but we all feel that we are privileged to have him in our lives as he is very happy go lucky guy and he brings so much joy to everyone around him.”
In 2004, Vian and her family moved from London to West Sussex - so Taffy could attend the SeeAbility Millennium Centre in Leatherhead, Surrey. This centre closed in October 2021 and despite trying the company’s other centre in Seaford, Vian said it wasn’t suitable for her son.
Vian said: “When Seeability shut its doors for good, I sat on that table and cried my face out. I thought how am I going to cope, how are me and my husband going to work and look after Taffy. I remember sitting down and telling my husband that I couldn’t cope with this.”
After a conversation with her daughter and the Care Quality Commission, Vian - a former social worker - decided to open the Re:Sight centre to help support her son.
Taffy, with the aid of a carer, takes part in a structured, educational day between Monday and Friday 9-5pm.
She said: “This is an educational thing for my son. When he left school at the age of 18, all he could do was walk
with no direction. Since then, his vocabulary has increased and he has thrived.
“Wethinkeveryonedeserves a chance to achieve something, no matter how small, such as for someone to be able to feed themselves independently, we want to make people feel and if we are able to enable that person to do that, then that’s the most important thing.
“Everybody has a dream, even my son, so I’m glad we can help him achieve it.”