Joshua needs a helping hand - CIMT fundraising

Hi, my name is Sarah and I am fundraising to raise money for an intensive course of Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) for my son Joshua.

Joshua was born in June 2020 via emergency c-section. This was a traumatic event, as Joshua was stuck and it took 3 different doctors attempting to get him out before he was finally delivered. He suffered a fracture to the skull as a result.

At 18 hours old, Joshua was taken to NICU for monitoring and at 36 hours old a nurse noticed he was having seizures. He was moved to the high dependency unit with breathing tubes and feeding tubes as well as needles in his head for the EEG monitoring. At 7 days old, an MRI confirmed that he had suffered a stroke at some point in the past 7 days, which had caused significant damage to the left side of his brain. We were told by doctors at the time that this would likely result in weakness to the right side of his body - a condition called Hemiplegia which is a form of Cerebal Palsy.

Since leaving hospital, Joshua has been receiving regular therapy from the NHS physio and occupational therapist. He is doing well and can now sit up unaided and is starting to move around by shuffling on his bum.

The weakness on his right side is apparent, as he does not use his right arm automatically and his right hand is often fisted. He doesn’t really weight bear through his right arm either.

After doing some research, we have found a private physio who specialises in Hemiplegia and offers an intensive course of CIMT which has proven results in increasing the function of the hand and upper limb. We are hoping this will enable Joshua to use his hand in order to carry out normal every day activities.  We have booked to do this course, and will be completing 3 weeks in February 2022. However, this is not funded by the NHS and so we are trying to raise the funds to help towards the cost of this therapy.

On 23rd October 2021, myself and some friends and family will be walking a marathon (26 miles) around Preston to raise money for Joshua’s therapy. 

I would be really grateful if you could sponsor our walk/donate towards Joshua’s therapy  

Thanks

Sarah