Billy's Wish to Walk

Billy was born in 2013, and for Pete and me, our world felt complete. Like all new parents, we thought Billy was perfect, and we were just so in love with him. When Billy was about 3 months old, we took him swimming, and a friend of ours pointed out a couple of things to us. One was that his head was tilted to one side, and the other was that his feet were very stiff. As we had never had children before, we hadn’t noticed any of these things, so we immediately took him to the doctor. The doctor focused more on his neck than his feet, and Billy began a course of physiotherapy to help straighten his head.

As the weeks went on and the milestones started to come up, we noticed that Billy was not hitting the milestones of sitting up, crawling, or walking like our friends' children of the same age.

At about 8 months old, we took him back to the doctor, and that was the beginning of a downward spiral in the fight to find a diagnosis.

At 15 months old, Billy had his first MRI, which came back clear. At the time, we were so happy, as we thought that maybe he was just slower in his development. At 16 months old, Billy started commando crawling, and by 19 months, he began crawling on his knees. So, we were hopeful again that he would do things in his own time. At just over 2 years old, Billy had his second MRI, and once again, it came back clear. This time, we weren’t so happy, as without a diagnosis, we realized it would be impossible to get Billy the help he needed.

Throughout Billy’s life, he has been on several different medications, had Botox in his legs twice, received physiotherapy twice a week since he was 15 months old, and had full support at nursery to help with his mobility.

Pete and I have tried several different treatments to help Billy. We’ve taken him to a chiropractor, an osteopath, and cognitive therapy, but as he gets older, we realize we are running out of time. He is now at an age where he wants to be like his friends. He wants to run, jump, skip, ride a bike—all of those things. As his parents, we want to get him there.

Our ultimate goal was to raise enough funds for Billy to have an operation to reduce the spasticity in his legs. This is an operation that, when we started our fundraising, was not funded by the NHS. And because Billy had no diagnosis, even if it were funded, he wouldn’t qualify for it. Over the years of fundraising, we’ve fought tirelessly for Billy to be able to have the operation on the NHS, attending many hospitals. FINALLY, in May of 2022, we got our wish, and the operation is now being funded!

We still need to raise as much money as we can. Even though we’ve saved for the operation, the rehabilitation process is not quick, and Billy will need 3–4 sessions of physiotherapy a week, as well as strength training, which costs around £12,000 a year.

We will be running a serious number of fundraising events to help us reach the point where we can give Billy the best life possible.

Thank you for reading Billy’s story and for helping his dream come true.

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, the funds will be used, if appropriate, to support 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 objects, any funds that cannot be used will be transferred for the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope.