Tables filling up.

Mat and Tim overseeing things.

Heather selling raffle ticketss

Anne and Steph

Mat in charge of all the scores and technology.

Gideon- the quizmaster

Mat and Ayesha running the cake stall

Fish and chip supper

Tim and a friend

Me and my brother PB

Enjoying the evening

Mike and Marie up from Shropshire!

A massive thank you to my wonderful brother and family who organized a great quiz night last night in Pinner, North London, in aid of Thomas’ campaign. Over 100 people were there and it was a really successful and enjoyable evening.

Including the JustGiving donations from people who couldn’t come they raised over £1800 for Thomas! Incredible.

A special thank you to Gideon for being such an entertaining quizmaster for the evening, Kath Adey & Christine Murphy for running the bar so well, Justine Bancroft for blitzing the raffle, Ayesha for taking care of the cake stall, Zach for running around all evening, Matthew Brassey ( my gorgeous nephew) for all his technical support, and of course Annabel Brassey  ( my beautiful niece) for all her help before & during the evening.

Thank you. We love you.

Time for an update, but where to start…? We have reached £25,000!!!!! Mad heh, after 4 months of fundraising this is what we (that includes you!) have achieved.
How? Well, Christmas was a busy time…

The Cumber Family Charitable Trust is an organisation run by a local farming family to support a wide range of charities from agricultural and conservation work to children’s health.  The trust has very kindly agreed to help our cause with a generous donation of £1,250.

Their donation will allow us to continue providing the physiotherapy that is making such a difference to Thomas’s strength and abilities.

It really is humbling to see how many people out there want to help others.  If one isn’t trying to raise funds, you wouldn’t necessarily realise that such generosity and willingness to help is out there.

So thank you once again to the trustees of the Cumber Trust for supporting us.

Since the last session of Footsteps, Thomas has been bursting with confidence! In his riding lessons he has moved on to trotting which is joyful to watch. It’s amazing that he has the core strength now to control his movements whilst trotting, especially as he doesn’t have the support of a saddle & stirrups.

He is also now using his sticks more and more when we are out in public, and in school. For only 10 minutes or so at a time but this is incredible progress, and shows how he is learning this new motor pattern. It’s something the rest of us do naturally without having to think about it, but with CP you need to train yourself to do it.

As you can see from the pictures, he is really enjoying this new freedom.

It’s been one busy weekend!  In addition to our own fundraising events locally, we had other events on in London, and even a global event streamed live for 24 hours online.

We hosted a very successful quiz night on Friday, which raised around £1,200 between the ticket sales, raffle and cakes.  Also running on Friday night was the London event – a disco hosted by 7 year old Scarlett, who was eager to do something for Thomas and raised £100.

The boys’ nursery continued to support Thomas by having a “wear pyjamas for the day” day on Friday too.

The fourth event running was by Dan, their key worker at nursery, who was doing the 24-hour fantasy story-telling event and has so far raised over £2,000. You can check it out here.

And on to Saturday… Nicci’s Godmother Thelma was having a big (I won’t way which one) birthday, and asked that instead of getting presents, people donate to Thomas’s fund instead.  So far, this has generated a wonderful £200, with more still to come.

Then today, Sunday, Nicci had a stall in our local Winter Craft Market in the community centre. There were some lovely hand crafted items there, from a wide range of sellers at the market, and Nicci herself made £166 from her stall, so a big thank you again to everyone that had been busy making things for us to sell.

Altogether then, this weekend has generated more than £3,600 towards Thomas’ fund, taking our total past £18,000. So 3 months in, and we’re 24% of the way there – with more events being planned for the new year.

So join us if you can, for a wine tasting evening, a jumble sale / coffee morning, golf / spa day, high tea in Florence Park, or a 3 Peaks Challenge come the summer…

The final week of this session went really well with Thomas working hard in the spider and on the mat to build up his strength. His confidence has really grown in this session and he is more willing to use his body when he is up on his feet which is so exciting. Fear is such a debilitating emotion and can hold us back from so much… Helping Thomas to work through this is so important as once it takes hold, as we all know, it can become a daily struggle. Getting Thomas to reach out to try climbing and jumping and of course, walk independently has been a huge achievement and great progress.

We aren’t back for a 3 week session until February half term now but we will continue to come for our weekly session and have 2 hrs of private physio a week in place so hopefully we can keep the momentum going, keep his confidence high.

Next weekend is a big fundraising weekend for us as we are running a quiz on Friday at the local community centre and at the same venue, we have a stall at the Christmas Market on Sunday. Dan, the boys key worker from nursery is doing his 24hr Dungeons and Dragon event ( http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/24hourtohelpthomas ) and my godmother is also having her 60th on Saturday where she has asked all her friends not to buy her presents but instead, to donate to Thomas’ campaign bless her. Then in London, Scarlett, the daughter of my dearest friend Jane, is holding a disco party in aid of Thomas. She is only 7 and it was all her idea!

So, if you are watching Children in Need on Friday and go to donate could you possibly think about donating to Thomas instead this year?

You can do this by texting: httd74 to 70070

Or by going to our website: http://www.treeofhope.org.uk/thomas-story-help-thomas-to-dance/

Thank you for staying with us.

Us x

Despite having a cold this week Thomas ended yesterday by taking at least 10 independent steps and then today, he managed to navigate a really hard obstacle course that his therapist had designed for him.

It is wonderful to see how his confidence is growing and how ‘in his body’ he is becoming.

Having spatial awareness is something we take for granted as is the way our body automatically does, for the most part, what we want it to do but these things don’t come naturally to Thomas. He has to work really hard to tell his body what to do and then find the strength from somewhere to do it. This is why these past few days have been so amazing. It is as though his brain is starting to get these messages after so much repetition and practise.

Hopefully Bea, my brother’s partner is going to be able to put some videos here so you can see him yourself.

1 more week of therapy to go.

Thank you to everyone who came along to The Sunday Sessions last weekend at our local community centre. It’s a brilliant way to see some live music even if you have young children in tow, and they take place on the last Sunday of the month throughout the winter months. Thanks to the fabulous organising by Dave and Sophie, it was a full house on Sunday, and we made £85 towards Thomas’ fund from the raffle!

Looking forward to next month’s session!

https://www.facebook.com/floparksundays/

The first week of Footsteps ended quite literally on a high with Thomas climbing up the ladder and managing the obstacle course his therapist had designed for him. This not only involved going up and down slopes and steps but also kicking skittles down along the way. Resting over the weekend in preparation for another 10 hours of therapy next week!

We’ve got a stall and we will be selling some lovely hand crafted gifts in aid of our fundraising campaign so save the date and come along. Potentially you could get your Christmas shopping done in a day. There will also be cake on sale and so we could have a chat too! Perfect.

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