Author: blackginger

Seven-year old Ella from Chichester is one feisty young lady.  She has defied the odds since the day she was born at 24 weeks weighing just 650g so when lockdown stopped her weekly rehabilitation sessions, you just knew that she and her parents, Rachel and Emma, would find a way through.

Alfie was just a month old when a rare childhood tumour caused spinal cord compression and left him paralysed from the waist down.After almost two years, and supported with ankle splints, he began to stand using a frame. Specialist care at Stoke Mandeville Hospital continues to help Alfie in his rehabilitation twice a year, but now his mum has discovered specialist spinal cord injury rehabilitation centre Neurokinex nearer to home, and it is here that Alfie is really finding his feet – in more ways than one.

Jasper, 4, was fit and well before contracting Hand, Foot & Mouth disease at a party in November 2015. A rare complication saw this go to his heart and he was admitted to the Royal Brompton Hospital with dilated cardiomyopathy – an enlarged heart. He was put on life support but when the doctors brought him round, Jasper couldn’t move his legs: a blood clot had damaged his lower spinal cord and he was paralysed from the waist down.

Young Theo, 6, has four-limb dystonic cerebral palsy. His condition means he cannot walk unaided and is not always in control of his movements.  Despite the challenges of his condition, Theo is fiercely independent boy and will stop at nothing to gain a little control and independence. Since joining Neurokinex Kids Theo’s progress has taken several steps forward – literally

The Christmas, young Imogen was 3, she was carried into her home by her father, allowed just a couple of days out of hospital. Paralysed by the rare disease Transverse Myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord, Imogen was very poorly. Just one year on, Imogen was back on her feet with support and making great progress.