benswishtowalk.co.uk:
We are delighted that daughter Annie helped by sister Alice and school friends organised a tea and bun stall at Westwood Lodge yesterday, raising over £200 to pass on to Ben's Wish To Walk Charity.
Ben Smithson is a local 9 year old with Cerebral Palsy. Here's the story from his parents:
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"Ben decided to come into the world 10 weeks early and sustained some oxygen starvation after birth.
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Ben was a very happy baby and loved being with people. We did however notice he was not reaching his developmental milestones, he sat unaided at 11 months & crawled at 18 months.
All Bens doctors told us it was delayed development, and we trusted them.
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Ben was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when he was nearly 2 ½ years old, we were shocked but in some ways relieved as he would now receive the help he needed.
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So Ben has always been playing catch up on all the early intervention he missed out on. This has however NEVER stopped Ben from achieving all he wants in life. We have a saying in our house if he can’t do it he finds ‘Ben’s way’ of doing it.
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A little over a year ago we heard about several children who had gone to a Children’s Hospital in America and has surgery called Selective Dorsal Rizhotomy. After a lot of talking and research we decided as parents we should at least see if Ben was a suitable candidate for the surgery.
And so to today - Ben was accepted for surgery on 6th May 2010. Now the fund raising begins.... We have a huge mountain to climb and raise a estimated £45,000 by January 2011."
