A little care from HemiHelp eases a long child’s journey with Hemiplegia...

Hello, my name is Mollie, and I would firstly like to thank you for taking an interest in my blog, where I hope to raise awareness of my charity HemiHelp, and all the life brightening things it does to support people of any age with Hemiplegia and brain damage.

My Story…… I have chosen to aid this charity for my GCSE advocacy because it is dear to my heart. My now 16 year old brother has a severe paralysis to the left side of his body (Hemiplegia), which causes life time impairment to his brain, learning, spine, and general life style. My mum first noticed that there was something not quite right shortly after he was born. He had badly crossed eyes, and had his first fit. At the time, my parents weren’t aware of epileptic fits, so didn’t know what was happening. After being rushed to Hospital, he was under constant intensive care, with doctors running all possible brain scans and MRI’s. Along wait passed and after 2 years of being poked, prodded, tested, and in and out of children’s wards, he was eventually diagnosed with Hemiplegia. This condition also came with Cerebral palsy, brain damage and Epilepsy. He is affected greatly today with a limp, monthly fits, speech and learning difficulties, and a seriously weak and damaged left side of his body, including brain, spine, limbs and central nervous system. As well as this, he had to, for many years take 4/5 lots of drugs a day in order to control his epilepsy. This put great pressure on his liver and vital organs, stopping them from functioning properly. Today, his medication has been reduced and is constantly being changed as his seizures are still not under control.

Joseph needs to undergo regular physiotherapy in order to stimulate and strengthen his weakened side. Day to day challenges such as doing up buttons or zips prove too difficult for my brother.

….But then HemiHelp came along; a fantastic charity put together by caring parents with children like Joseph, or who have experienced a child with something similar to his condition. HemiHelp is an invaluable organisation that provides information to parents on utensils and gadgets to aid day to day chores of feeding, washing and dressing etc. They also give full info seminars held around the country by specialists in this field and provide updates on key aspects of this condition and how it can be supported by either surgery, apparatus or physiotherapy. An accident. That’s all it takes for you to be paralysed. This is why the public mostly don’t support a health charity, because they straight away think: “Oh, I haven’t got it, so I will never get it, so why does it affect me?” I could understand them if this condition was inherited, but it’s not. A poor little child’s world could be turned upside down, fine one minute, disabled the next. It could happen to anyone….. It could happen to you. No matter what anyone’s future holds for them, these children now know, thanks to my charity, if nothing else health wise improves, their life ahead CAN always brighten with HemiHelp.

Thank you once again for visiting my blog. Please do now post me a comment and tell me where you are from (Hometown or Country); this would be much appreciated as this is GCSE coursework. Or, in particular, you might like to briefly answer my following questions. Any further information can be found at: http://www.hemihelp.org.uk/. Please show them some care. Who knows, by helping now, you could be assisting your future relatives, or even YOURSELF!

1. Had you heard about the charity HemiHelp or hemiplegia before?
2. Do you now feel more informed about what it is and the side effects?
3. Would you now be willing to support my charity in any of these small ways:

• Making a little donation to HemiHelp
• Visiting their website/ taking an interest
• Or just spreading the word to people about it to raise awareness.

Any comments or posts will be well valued!