Hi my name is Sam and I am mummy to an amazing little boy Joshua Louie Botham aka Joshie.
You can follow JoshiesJourney on our FB page right here: JoshiesJourney

I am lucky enough to work with fantastically supportive colleagues who have kindly agreed to take on the challenge of climbing
Snowdon this July with me to raise money to help towards funding Joshies equipment.

Sadly life is a constant battle for us as a family in finding funding to pay for specialist equipment for Josh. We get very little given us by the NHS in terms of support, care and any equipment needs as we are fulltime working parents and done qualify for most help.
As you can imagine all of the equipment is very very costly and its a constant worry how we will fund these items.

Joshie has now outgrown his wheelchair and needs a larger more specialist chair which will accommodate feeding, sitting and moving.
With that comes the added pressure that we now have to get what is known as a WAV - Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle so he can be
wheeled on and off transport to get around anywhere. Currently we lift and carry him into the car and you can imagine the weight of an
8 year old boy.

We also desperately need to get some house adaptations to avoid carrying him up and downstairs and in and out of the bathroom. This will comprise of a specialist through ceiling lift and hoists. We hope the Council may help with this area but this is still being debated!

All of the above we will have to fund ourselves and to give you an example of the costs - the WAV alone is £7K down payment for the
cheapest model we need!

For those of you that dont know our story:
Joshie was born 08 April 2013 - 4 weeks premature with Bronchial Pneumonia and Bacterial Meningitis.

After 8 weeks in intensive care followed by many many hospital appointments Doctors finally diagnosed Joshie with Cerebral Palsy 12
months after birth.

Fast forward 7 years and a very tough journey and Joshua has now just turned 8 years old. He is without doubt one of the happiest, smiley
little boys you will ever meet and although he cannot talk, walk or stand he communicates with the use of his beautiful big brown eyes, long eyelashes and cheeky smiles.

Joshie faces lots of struggles, is very vulnerable and doctors and therapists have said it is likely he will never walk and may never talk.

We as his mummy and daddy never say never and we try and make life as ''normal'' for Josh as possible. He now attends a local specialist
school which he loves and particularly loves the therapy pool they have there when he gets to swim with his teachers.

We want him to have the equipment he so desperately needs so he can enjoy and function in his every day life just like an able bodied child can.

If you would like to donate and help support Joshie we would be hugely grateful and it would mean so much to our beautiful boy.

With thanks Sam, Paul, Ellie-Grace & Joshie xxx