It is Saturday night and I just thought I would check in on Dominics email address as i haven’t done so for a while and I was amazed to see a long list of unread emails, offers of support, donations and well wishes.  I am so overwhelmed and it didnt occur to me that we would receive any response.   We are so grateful to everyone of you that have taken the time to email, look at our website and put pen to paper and write and offer your support and wishes to Dominic and also your very kind words you have said to Gary and I.  I will endeavor to reply and thank each of you individually that have got in touch over the next couple of days but I just wanted to post that I have now seen them all and really don’t know what to say we are so touched.  I will also do an update on the lovely Dominic in the next couple of days so you can all see the progress he continues to make since the programme was made last year.  All the therapy he goes through and that we are fundraising for is really paying off and Gary and I are really starting to believe that he has a happy and healthy future ahead of him providing we push him and provide every bit of therapy and kit he needs now to maximise his potential.

Some of you have asked how you can help fundraise or make a donation.  If you want to learn more about our fundraising or are able to help  then please do email dominicsfund@gmail.com and we would be happy to answer any questions.  If you want to donate then the donate page on this site will take you to Paypal or give you details of Dominics bank account.

Thank you all once again for getting in touch and I hope you all have a lovely Christmas with your families.

Sarah (Dominic’s mum)

To everyone that has participated in the last year of fundraising and supporting us as a family I hope you enjoy this video of Dominics progress just 6 months post op.  Thank you for all your generosity and support

We had our first fundraiser last night of 2011.  Our friend Lee Thorpe kindly with the support of his poker club arranged a week long fundraiser with crash ten ball competition going on all last week culminating in a poker night last night with Auction and raffle.  We had an amazing time.  The staff and members of the equalchance club made Gary and I feel so welcome and had gone to so much trouble.  Dominic came along for an hour or so for some photos but we managed to drag him from the fruit machines before he got too hooked and pack him of to his Anutie Ness Noss for the night.  We had 2 of the most famous cue sport referees join the evening, Michaela Tabb and Jan Verhaas, ahead of the Masters starting today.  They kindly donated a snooker cue signed by the top 16 players of the upcoming Masters tournament and VIP meet and greet tickets to the semi finals of the tournament.  Along with these two items and a spurs shirt signed by the whole team we raised an amazing £1900 alone on the auction.  Member donations, a fantastic raffle kindly organised by Soulla & Steph helped get us to a total of over £4000 for the evening.  We can’t thank you all enough it was a great treat for Gary and I to attend one of our fundraisers and just enjoy the evening and not need to do anything you all took care of everything.  We called it a night at 2am but we hear Lee was still going strong on the cash tables at 5am this morning! I will post photos soon but you can go to www.equalchance.co.uk to see an article they have already posted on the evening and a couple of photos.

Dominic had his first riding lesson today and had a great time.  Despite having to wear girly pink boots and the horse being called teddy and not JoJo (Dominic seemed to want to ride a horse called JoJo for some reason!) he thoroughly enjoyed it.  He sat beautifully and his instructor appears to be cut from the same cloth as his physio Robyn and didnt let him get away with any leaning on her or not paying attention but she was lovely with it.  I put on my wish list when we first applied for SDR that I would love Dominic to be able to open his legs enough to go horse riding and Dr park on acceptance said he would be able to and today he proved him right.  Without the operation he wouldnt have had a chance of doing it and today he sat comfortably on a normal saddle and could move his legs into the stirrups and balance on there on his own.  Very excited and was lovely to watch.  Great way to disguise todays physio session, worked really hard and had great fun.  Back next week for more!

Dom tried out his future powerchair today. He did so well even though he wouldn’t follow directions and just wanted to go round and round but he did some great steering particularly with his right hand which was amazing.   He had a riot which is the most important thing and loved the freedom.

Just to place an order we need to find £15k  There is a 4 month waiting list to get the chair once ordered so we really need to raise this money asap so he can get some independence and give josh rides on the back! Any fundraising ideas will be gratefully received!

For all those of you that have supported Dominic get to America, today was one of those days where you get to see where your money went and how all the effort and every penny donated has made such a difference to Doms life. He walked with his new walker today weightbearing himself and loved every minute. If he can do this 8 weeks post op it is very exciting to wonder where he will be in a years time. Lots of strengthening to do but an amazing effort for his first time. Big thank you to Robyn who is putting so much time into helping Dominic it would have been a very scary ride without her by our side.  Thank you everyone been a very special day for us x