A Bridgend family is appealing for help to raise funds for an eight-year-old boy who stopped breathing aged six weeks.
Francis Read was resuscitated by his grandmother Karen Read a nurse by profession before being rushed to hospital.
Following a few days in intensive care, his life support was switched off and he was not expected to react well. However, he defied the odds and nine months later was able to go home Franci lives with, Grandma (Mamgu) Karen, who works for Harbour Healthcare, and Grandpa (Bambi) Craig who is in the Royal Navy and his sister Lilli who is ten. Franci’s Dad Morgan Read lives nearby and spends time with Franci every day.
Craig said….
‘Francis has been diagnosed with severe Cerebral Palsy (level 5), and faces numerous medical and neurological challenges. He was born with his right hip displaced and battles with increasing-degrees of neuromuscular scoliosis, plus he relies on a PEG tube for feeding. Despite being registered blind, he retains close-up vision. Franci has recently received an eye gaze device which has now given him a voice for the first time.
Franci wears a body brace and various splints to manage his limbs and is a full-time wheelchair user.
Due to medical complications there are no plans to carry out surgery on his spine or hip, so the only way to make Franci more comfortable is through daily massage and hydrotherapy.
For this reason, we are raising funds to install a hydrotherapy pool at home. Franci’s face lights up as soon as he’s in the water. He has very limited opportunities for hydrotherapy at school, plus once a week at another facility where he can be in the water for 20 minutes, but this involves a four-hour trip.
If Franci had a hydrotherapy pool at home, it would greatly improve his quality of life, help ease his pain and any discomfort and improve his strength and movement with the right exercises.
One of Franci’s biggest joys is music and although he is non-verbal, he enjoys singing along to music in his own way while he has his daily physio and stretches from us to tunes like YMCA and I will walk 500 miles, Somewhere over the Rainbow and You are my Sunshine. He likes music from Rod Stewart to the more modern Tobias Robertson but Franci adores the Royal Marines Band tunes and we take him to listen to them whenever we can.
Franci will often still be singing to himself hours after going to bed, and when we say goodnight and I love you he will respond with the only two consistent sounds he has of “wuv wuv”- this is him telling us he loves us too.’
The family is entering a ‘Franci’s Friends’ team into a Rugby Sevens Tournament on June 14th at Bryncethin Rugby Club, Bridgend and on the same day, Franci’s uncle Huw Read, of HR Decorators, will be taking on a skydive in Swansea and is hoping to raise an extra £1,000 for the fund.
Karen added….
‘Our friends, family, community and our employers have already been incredibly supportive and we are so grateful, but we still have a very long way to go and every penny counts. Francis has come such a long way and like any family we simply want him to have the best quality of life as possible.
If we can achieve this our next aim would be to support Franci’s class friends who also need hydrotherapy by providing them with access to a much-needed provision in the area.’
The family is being supported by children’s charity Tree of Hope, which helps families raise money for children and young people like Francis for medical treatments and healthcare services not freely available to them through the NHS and social care. The charity provides fundraising guidance, campaign development, financial management, charity registration and emotional support from the Family Support team. Families like Francis’s benefit from gift aid, corporate support while also providing donor reassurance.
Tree of Hope CEO Becky Andrew said….
‘We wish Francis and his family all the best with their fundraising activities. We are pleased to be supporting them to give them the support in reaching their fundraising goals.’
To learn more about Francis or to donate to his fund visit HERE or HERE
You can also sponsor Huw’s skydive HERE
