Fundraising for Rico

Thank you for visiting Rico's fundraising page.

Our son Rico was born in August 2023 following a completely normal full-term pregnancy. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I noticed that his movements had reduced. Remembering the message from the charity Kicks Count to always get checked if your baby's movements change, I went into hospital.

It was discovered that Rico was suffering from a severe lack of oxygen and blood flow to his brain. I was rushed into theatre, put to sleep and Rico was delivered by emergency Caesarean section.

Rico was born not breathing and required six minutes of resuscitation. Following a devastating brain scan, we were told that the damage to his brain was so severe that he was not expected to survive. Our family came to the hospital to say goodbye and his life support was withdrawn.

But Rico started breathing for himself.

Over the following weeks he began feeding and moving, and three weeks later we were able to bring our little boy home.

Three years on, Rico has shown us just how much determination he has.

Rico now has severe dystonic cerebral palsy as a result of his brain injury. He also has epilepsy, a visual impairment and difficulties with swallowing and feeding, and he is pre-verbal. He cannot yet independently sit, roll, crawl or walk and needs support with almost every aspect of everyday life, including moving, sitting, eating, playing and communicating.

But those diagnoses only tell you a small part of who Rico is.

Rico is a very happy, sociable little boy. He loves being outside in nature, watching the world around him, friendly faces and people spending time with him — and especially his big brother Rafa.

We will always be enormously grateful to the NHS, which saved Rico's life and continues to care for him through many specialist teams. However, the amount of regular hands-on therapy available to Rico through routine NHS provision is limited. We therefore supplement his NHS care with additional private physiotherapy and other therapies to give him as many opportunities as possible to practise movement, interact with his environment and work towards greater independence.

We originally created this campaign when Rico was a baby. Since then, the incredible support of our family, friends and wider community has allowed us to access regular specialist private physiotherapy and other therapies and treatments for Rico.

Fundraising has contributed towards ongoing private physiotherapy, intensive therapy programmes, specialist approaches to support his movement and development, and equipment to help position and support him safely at home. We have also self-funded a significant amount of Rico's therapy and the associated costs, including travel for specialist treatment.

In 2025, we travelled with Rico to Poland for an intensive therapy programme. In October 2026, we are hoping to give him another opportunity to undertake a 3-week intensive programme at NAPA in Essex, where he will receive two hours of individually tailored intensive therapy each day.

The funds shown as raised on this page therefore represent support received and used for Rico over several years. His needs are ongoing, and we continue to fundraise alongside contributing ourselves as new therapy, treatment and equipment needs arise.

We don't know exactly what Rico will be able to achieve as he grows, and we don't expect any therapy to provide guarantees. What we want is to continue giving him opportunities to learn, practise and show us what he can do.

Skills such as gaining greater control of his movements, reaching more purposefully, rolling or sitting more independently would be enormous milestones for Rico and could make a real difference to his ability to play, explore and interact with the people and world around him.

We feel incredibly lucky to have had so much support since Rico was born. Every donation has helped us give our little boy opportunities that we could not provide through NHS services alone, and we never take that generosity for granted.

Thank you so much for supporting Rico and helping us give him every opportunity to reach his potential. ❤️

7.5% of all donations to Tree of Hope in relation to this appeal will be allocated to the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope to cover our core operating costs.

If we raise insufficient funds, or surplus funds, then the funds will be used, if appropriate, to fund support for our child’s needs in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objects. If in those circumstances we are unable to use all or part of the funds for the benefit of our child in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objectives, then any funds that cannot be used will be transferred to be used for the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope.