Tommy's appeal

Two year old Tommy was left with a severe head injury after a fall from a holiday apartment balcony. When he came to The Children's Trust a month later, he couldn’t sit up without support, he couldn’t roll over and he was floppy in your arms. He would cry if he couldn’t see or touch his mum.

Our first goal for Tommy was to sit up again. We began physiotherapy sessions where we supported him in a sitting position. Tommy loved to sit on the slide and it was a great way to encourage him to sit up straight before he slid down with a big smile! A week before his mum’s birthday he sat up unaided for the first time. He had been at the Trust one month.

Our second goal was to get Tommy crawling. As part of his therapy sessions the Trust’s physiotherapist crawled around the floor pretending to be a dog, and gradually, over the next few weeks, Tommy began joining in with lots of characterful woofs. He had been at the Trust three months.

The third goal for Tommy was to learn how to walk independently. Tommy was already making great use of his rollator, a walking frame which supported his unsteadiness, but the physio wanted Tommy to start taking steps without this support. The physio would take him to the Trust’s gym where he could ride ‘Babs’, the mechanical horse. Horse riding not only requires strength in your body, but in your legs too. Tommy began to take some tentative steps, but he would sometimes fall.

Tommy loves music, and we would often sing together to make his sessions more enjoyable. The physio found the song ‘One finger, one thumb’ and when she got to the line ‘stand up, sit down keep moving’ she knew it would be absolutely perfect. When they sang the song, his attention wasn’t focused on his disability; instead he was having too much fun singing and completing the actions in time with the tune to realise he was standing all by himself.

Then during one session they had their breakthrough. Tommy had been playing with his favourite finger puppets when he decided to show them to his mum. Without any fanfare, Tommy took his first wobbly independent steps to his mum. When he reached her she just hugged him in her arms. Tommy had reached a real milestone.

After six months of intensive rehabilitation it was time for Tommy to leave the Trust and to continue his recovery at home. He’d made such advances in such a short space of time, and it was so special to see him able to take six independent steps before he left.

Please make a donation today so that The Children's Trust can continue to make a difference to the lives of children like Tommy.

Thank you.