Mary & Oscar Stronger Together

UPDATED OCTOBER 2023

We now have four beautiful children, George (11), Mary (9),Oscar (7) and Arthur who joined us in February of 2023. 

Our route to diagnosis has been long. Mary had developmental delays and was diagnosed with ASD, at the severe end of the spectrum, in November 2018. Oscar also had developmental problems, starting at 2 months old where he was unable to keep feed down. His issues continued to develop to the point where he has an unsafe swallow, is non-verbal, and has severe mobility limitations.

At the end of 2020, both Oscar and Mary were diagnosed withRett Syndrome through the 100,000 Genome Project.

We are looking to raise funds that help us be the family wealways wanted to be and to be able to do the things "normal" familiesthink nothing of doing.

George has been a trooper, helping us and his siblings as much as he can (without us asking), but we want to give him as much of a realchildhood as possible. We are unable to do a lot of the things his friends are doing with their siblings. We all love being outside and having fun as a family.

Through you, our amazing supporters, we have been able to start putting together a safe playing area for the family; a fenced-off zone inthe garden that will include a sensory room, a pergola that will have sensory elements, an enclosed in-ground trampoline, and an accessible swing that can safely be used by all the family. The final stage will be installing a surface that will be safe and make thespace usable all year round. To complete this work, we will need to find around £3,000.

Another challenge we face is getting out and about as a family. We have access to the Motability scheme, but as Oscar needs to bemanually transferred into the vehicle, the car has become unsustainable to the point where we need a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV). We are extremely lucky to have been offered a WAV, but we now need to fund the advanced payment so need another £3500.

We'll be carrying out a series of fundraising activities over the coming months to help encourage support to help us raise the £6500 needed, but as always, we're extremely grateful for all the support you give usas a family 🙌🏻. We truly are stronger together!