Firstly, thank you to everyone who supported this fundraising event for Thomas. We were very sorry we couldn’t be there in person.

As well as saying thank you to Lynda, for organising such a wonderful evening, a big thank you goes to my cousins Christine and Mandy.

It was literally this time last year when we first began to ‘plan’ our fundraising campaign. The thought was overwhelming. BUT thanks to my beautiful cousin Mandy and her Brassey/ Lea determination, she, along with a group of friends raised over £800! Because of this belief and support we had to pull ourselves together, dig deep, set up a website, join Facebook and get out there! helpthomas2dance was launched.

And then, a few months later, Christine and the rest of the Brassey/Nixon/Edge crew raised another huge amount at their cake sale. It was over £1000! Their belief and support made us BELIEVE that there might be a way after all. You can’t imagine what this felt like or maybe you can?

Thank you guys for getting us here and for organising such a successful fundraiser.

Next weekend we have the honour of celebrating Sue and Keiran’s recent wedding with them, their friends and family. Sue and I were VSO volunteers together in northern Namibia.

It is always an honour to be invited to such a special occasion but this feels even more so because the bride and groom have asked for their guests not to buy them any gifts but instead, make a donation towards our campaign. I know, incredible isn’t it!

Thank you guys for sharing your love with us.

Charlie, a student attending Greene’s Tutorial College in Oxford, kindly gave up his Sunday morning to run 5k last weekend by taking part in the Oxford Fun Run in the Parks. Thank you for raising  £167.50 towards Thomas ‘ surgery and post operative therapy Charlie.

Izzy and her son Oliver took to the streets of Oxford today to help us raise the money we need to allow Thomas to live a full and independent life. They have raised £1071.00!!!!

Thomas and Dylan go to the same preschool as Izzy’s daughter Esme, so this feels extra special. Perhaps one day, we might get to watch them all dance together.

Thank you for finding the time to do this for us, and for soldiering on through the injury!

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/izzy-and-oliver-oxford-town-and-gown-2017

The kindness of Jane Mercer knows no limits! She was up early May morning organising coffee and croissants for the residents of Pegasus Grange and raised another £50 for Thomas’ campaign. You are an inspiration Jane! Thank you so much.

A special call out to Eranda Proko and Grace Proko, who along with myself and my brother, Peter Brassey, were up early this morning selling at the Kassam Stadium for our first car boot! We made £123.40 and still have enough ‘items’ for many, many more car boot sales throughout the summer!

On Sunday my fabulous cousin Mark Hunter and his gorgeous wife, Catherine Hunter ran the Bristol 10K for Thomas and have raised over £2000!!!!  Leading up to the race they had been training hard with Catherine digging deep, thinking about Thomas and all of his hard work to help get her ready. Thank you for your endless love and support guys. This is an extraordinary amount to have raised.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/markhunter?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Yimbyprojectpage&utm_content=markhunter&utm_campaign=projectpage-share-owner&utm_term=7P9zR34Rr

A huge thank you to all of Pippa’s friends and family who have supported her these last 3 months on her sponsored slim. Because of their love and support Pip is hoping to have raised over £500. This amazing amount will help pay for a year of weekly riding lessons! Thank you!

It was great witnessing Thomas’ new found confidence in standing today. His balance and spatial (body) awareness is constantly improving and he showed this by not only catching a ball while independently standing but by also being able to steady himself after the catch to then throw the ball back to me! I know, brilliant! Sadly there is no picture to show you as I was throwing the ball to him but he did it 3 times in a row before needing to sit back down on the bench. Now, he was in his splints and gaiters but still, this is huge, huge progress! It was wonderful to witness.

The pictures below were taken from later on in the session when he was moving from sitting to standing, to then bending down to collect the bean bags, to return back to standing in order to throw the bags at the target, all with very little support as you can see (and with only splints on). I still haven’t figured out how to put videos on here but I also managed to get a little video of him high kneeling backwards too. This is such a tricky sequence of movements and so again, shows just how strong his core/pelvis is getting. All his hard work is paying off! It really, really is.

So, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for walking this journey with us. We do feel you by our side and Thomas is getting stronger and stronger.