Hi, my name is Pip, proud mother of Thomas. I am fundraising for my son Thomas (Tom), as we are now fortunate enough to think about him coming home after a very long traumatic five months in hospital. Thomas sustained life-changing injuries, and we could make his coming home a little easier with some help for adaptions to the home. However, our journey will continue for another two years with further surgery and extensive physio to gain as much normality in his life as possible to enable him to be independent.

A bit about Tom and how life has changed:

Firstly let me introduce my son Tom; he is now 21 - we celebrated his 21st birthday earlier in January. Tom could not finish school but still got a job, admittedly with a family friend. Tom is autistic, and for those of you that have autistic children/adults in your life, you will understand that life is not easy for them. Society still has a long way to go to understand and accept autism and value the contributions these often gifted children/adults can bring.

January, the 21st of this year, started as a typical day. Tom had gone to work; I was home on a day off (i am a nurse, so I work shifts). At 13:30, I received the phone call that all parents dread.......from our friend, his boss saying Tom had had an accident, and the ambulance was on its way, but his boss had been cut off, and he needed to know what to do. It was the worst phone call of my life as it came to light the extent of my son's accident, he had been engulfed in 30ft flames after an explosion, and all of his skin had been burnt and he may not survive. Would his family get to tell him how much he is loved. During the phone call, his boss informed me that the air ambulance had arrived, so I jumped in my car to reach Tom as soon as I could. On hands free i contacted his father (a paramedic) and his stepdad, who were both at work, to tell them to meet me at the hospital. I reached Tom just as he was being put in an induced coma; his breathing was being taken over - I managed a love you and hang in there and keep fighting. Tom had sustained life-threatening injuries, initially quoted as 87% Burns of various grades, and was in a critical condition. We were living minute by minute, hour by hour. Due to the severity of his burns, he required specialist care and was transferred from Southampton to Chelsea and Westminster Regional Burns Intensive Care Unit in London. Tom has had 26 operations so far for grafting artificial skin to him as he only had tiny bit of skin to donate himself, collapsed his lungs several times, had sepsis, became anti biotic resistant, had pneumonia, and a blood clot - to add but a few things we faced - but he has fought hard and survived this initial fight. After 4 months, we have now been transferred closer to home. Tom is now at Sailsbury Hospital Reginal Burns Unit, having intense daily physio, rehabilitation and burns dressings.

We are now at the stage where Tom is being considered for discharge home, which is amazing but also brings its own chanlleges - nobodies home is suddenly able to accomodate a disabled person. We desparately want Tom back with us at home, but dispite all efforts from Tom, the intense physio and rehab we are still struggling and require two adaptions at home to make Tom's life a little easier for him. Firstly Tom needs a hospital type bed due to his burns skin healing to tight with adjustable height, adjustable head end (as he is not able to lie flat) and an extended foot end. Secondly we need to have a wet room installed (these take up to 3-5 months from the NHS or for funding to come through), Tom is unable to sit in bath due to skin constrants and physical ablities. We have a very small bathroom at home with only a bath - this needs to now come out and shower installed with a seat as Tom is unable to stand for long periods of time, we need to have access all around Tom when in the shower for safety purposes which means the shower can not be enclosed.

Tom,s journey in Photos (some of these photos may be distressing to view)

The burns pictures are when Tom's burns where grafted and partically healed