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

Now we have settled back in to normal life we need to focus our attention of arranging some more fundraising events.  We did really well raising the amount we did to get us to America but unfortunately the costs do not stop there.  As much as we would like to just be able to provide everything that Dominic needs we just are unable to do so.  We are now raising funds for the following items:

• Post op aftercare – Private physio & Hydro therapy sessions and the hire of a warm swimming pool or hydro pool – anyone that knows of a clean warm pool we can use please let us know!
• Equipment – in the St Louis hospital a total gym was used to help strengthen Dom’s legs. If anyone has any contacts in the fitness world do please get in touch in case there is a gym we can use or to help raise funds for a total gym at home.  We are currently using an alternative form of leg press involving wood flooring and our legs, kindly devised by Jack & Robyn!
• Electric Swivel Car seat – Due to Gary’s bad back we are struggling to get Dom in and out of the car.  To alleviate this we need to upgrade our Motobility car and then get adaptations made to fit this amazing car seat that lowers down so Dom can step onto it and then it swivels and slots back into the back seat – All this will cost at least £8k.
• Power wheelchair – Despite Doms op he will still need a Power wheelchair to get around.  We are still hopeful that he will be able to use a walker within the home or classroom but for longer distances to have any form of independence he will need to be in a chair.  After researching all the options the most suitable one for Dom is approx £18k.  This should last him right through primary school so you do get your moneys’ worth!

So as you can see we have our work cut out for us.  Any suggestions or offers of help would be greatly appreciated.  By popular demand we will be having another quiz night if Pete agrees to doing one and we are looking for a higher and more challenging venue for another abseil, can be anywhere in London or West Sussex any ideas welcome!  We have a beer tasting event planned and a poker night and this Saturday we have a stand at the East Grinstead Me, Baby & toddler show where we will be raffling off a Plan Toy Eco dolls house with Furniture for £5 per ticket and runner up prize of £50 Clever cloggs voucher.  The dolls house and stand has been kindly donated to us by T4Toys which is a fantastci independent toyshop in East Grinstead, they have also arranged this annual popular event www.mbtshow.co.uk  So anyone that is in West Sussex do come along and see us on the stand will be lovely to see you there.

Thank you for your continued support for Dominic!

Gary & Sarah

You can contact us at dominicsfund@gmail.com or by calling 07736176535

As the old cliche goes as one chapter ends another unfolds. It has been an amazing six weeks and it seems surreal that tomorrow I have to go back to work. It has been awesome both in what we have been through and in the fact that really how often do you get to spend six un-interrupted weeks with your wife and kids. Although at times it has driven me mad it has also been truly great it has been far easier than I thought it would be. They are both good boys once you get past the tantrums and tears and for the last few days we have had such a laugh its unbelievable ( even with Joshy being a bit ill ). Sarah has been fantastic in organising everything and my role has been relatively easy.

In particular I have managed to get away with doing absolutely nothing for the past few days apart from having fun with the boys, watching football , Judge Judy and drinking beer, and the odd bit of ironing so no matter how much I complain I know that really I am quite lucky.

What I did find totally mind blowing was that Dr Park sent us a message via Facebook. I mean how many Neuro Surgeons in the UK would do that !!!!! What a man !!

Dominic had a great time at school and they seem so positive and willing to take on anything that we both feel fantastically optimistic about him there. Also met some of the other parents who seem very nice.

This weekend we had a couple of long bike rides and met loads of people around the town who had seen Dominic in the paper either before or after the Op or who had donated money. Again the goodwill and the spirit of community and helping one of their own just moves you so much we are really glad we moved here.

The flight home was largely uneventful and both boys got a bit of sleep. Never would I have ever thought I would be looking forward to seeing the dull and dreary skies of Blighty !! Actually we returned to glorious sunshine and it was quite a nice day and almost as warm as the 80 degrees when we left St Louis. Still it was good to be back in the UK even with the chaos that is Heathrow and the queues of traffic on the M25. Sue was a star and arranged for our car to be at the airport so that was great. When we actually arrived home the boys were very excited (as were we) !! Its not that the US was bad in fact all the people we met were very friendly, extremely polite, just nice people. The service everywhere we  went was fantastic (apart from the stroppy barmaid in our hotel funny enough!!). The streets were clean wherever you went, the facilities and attractions excellent and most of them free !!  The facilities in the hospital were absolutely amazing and the staff so helpful, attentive, courteous and just kind that you felt sorry for their poor NHS counterparts we have encountered in the past and will encounter again .  The hotel room was spacious and had all mod cons and the staff in the hotel in the main great. Still despite all that there is nothing which can beat being in your own home, so it was great to arrive.

Dominic seems to have got straight back onto the clock, in fact for the first few days both boys were sleeping until 930 in the morning, however now Joshua has taken to waking up at 300 in the morning and wanting to get up saying “Its not night time”. He also seems very worried each time Sarah leaves him as if he thinks we might be going away and leaving him again !! Sarah and I also cant seem to shake off the jet lag entirely and although I have been getting lots of sleep feel continually tired and drained.

Dominic has gone back to Ingfield and they appeared impressed with the changes in Dominic since the Op. He loved going back to school and seeing Roger and Ramona and all his friends at school. He has had some physio at home since we came back and we have been doing his stretching and getting him in his stander, walker and bike as much as possible. It is early days but he is getting stronger already and he managed a couple of faltering steps on the walker already which would have been unthinkable before.  He is now eating well and looking forward to going to St Mary’s tomorrow.

Although the Op is out of the way there are still loads of things to sort out such as a wheel chair, a new seat for his car (or a new car), a power wheel chair, direct payments, numerous appointments with various specialists and we are both due to return to work soon.  It has all been exhausting and there will be no let up it seems but it has all been well worth it.