This is Tom.

Hi, I'm Rea (Maria), one of Tom's parents.

Tom is beautiful, loving, brave, caring, and almost two years old!

Tom has delayed gross motor development and has not yet used his body to crawl, stand, or walk. Tom sits or shuffles on his bottom to get around.

He has missed out on a lot of things other children his age get to enjoy, like walking, climbing, jumping, running, exploring and enjoying games with other children.

We have worked very hard since his birth to assist Tom. We have navigated multiple specialist appointments to support early breathing issues, low birth weight and poor weight gain - blood tests, admissions to hospital, osteo, physio, paediatric, maternal and child health. As his parents, we have done everything we can to learn new tips and tricks to try and support him with exercises and activities to encourage him to stand and walk.

Despite his love of books, songs and all things literary, Tom also has very limited speech and is not developing at the rate of his peers.

After an assessment, Tom has now been accepted into an early intervention program, provided by NAPA Institute, that aims to support Tom's development and well-being. Through intensive physical exercises and speech therapy, Tom will learn how to use and move his body and build his muscles so that one day he can stand, walk and talk.

Whilst we are so fortunate to secure a spot, the bills are starting to pile up, and so is the emotional and financial stress.

We are in the early stages of trying to gain government financial assistance for treatments and equipment for Tom. This can take months to be reviewed and approved, if successful. Any funds we gain will not be in time to secure a spot in the program Tom needs and we risk losing another year of no support.

It has been hard to accept that we need to reach out to others to help. But Tom is the priority and we cannot risk losing this opportunity.

The initial cost for this is upwards of $10,000. This includes intensive therapy sessions through NAPA Institute (Dynamic Movement Intervention, OT, Speech Therapy and Physio) as well as a mobility walking frame.

If anyone has a few dollars to spare, that we can put towards Tom's much-needed this, it would mean the absolute world to us. We will never forget it, and make sure that Tom knows how the community supported him.

Thank you for taking the time to listen and learn about Tom.

Love to you all,

Rea