Our son Rowan was diagnosed with a rare neurological condition 2 years ago.

Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy is an autoimmune condition where the immune system attacks the peripheral nerves. The nerves become inflamed and causes destruction of the myelin sheath.

This then leads to malfunction of the nerves. The signals going from the brain to the muscles are interrupted and the sensations from the skin to the brain is stopped.

This causes the muscles to break down leading to weakness, full/ partial paralysis, loss of balance, inability to walk, loss of reflexes, numbness, tingling and fatigue.

CIDP isn’t curable but it is treatable. Daily medication is given to suppress the immune system. This however leaves the patient immuno compromised and therefore has a greater risk of infections. Intravenous Immunoglobulins can be given to provide antibodies.

CIDP sufferers can go into remission but there’s a 75% chance that a relapse can occur. Relapses can often occur with no warnings and can be caused by the common cold.

Rowan has relapsed 3 times now. The 3rd time he relapsed he lost the use of all his limbs. He couldn’t walk, he couldn’t stand up, he couldn’t hold his blanky or even push a button on the remote.

He was then taken to Alder Hey for emergency intravenous immunoglobulins over the course of 5 days and thankfully it got him back on his feet.

You may see Rowan running around and think there’s nothing wrong with him, but sadly that isn’t the case. Rowans suffers massively with fatigue and pain. The fatigue is down to the side effects of the medications that he’s taking, but it’s also due to how hard his body has to work to do things a 5 year old kid wants to do. Walking isn’t easy for him, but he wants to keep up with his peers, friends and family.

We are very much an outdoorsy family, but we are very limited to what we can do, where we can go and how long can be spent on a day out.

Rowan has a wheelchair provided by the nhs. It’s great for when he’s in school but we can’t use it when we are out and about, like at the beach etc. Rowan relies hugely on his chair while we are out so at the moment we use an all terrain toddlers pushchair, however, Rowan has grown a fair amount and he’s struggling to fit in it now.

We’ve spoken to Rowans care team about him having a self propelled, all terrain wheelchair. This will give him some independents while we are out, and we won’t be limited to where we can go and what we can do.

His care team have agreed that this will be suitable for Rowan and have suggested setting up a go fund me page and looking at charities to help fund the Trekinetic K2.

If you could please donate a cost of a cup of coffee, we would be truly great full.

Lets get Rowan some new wheels.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart

Much love

Anna x