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Arsenal community coach Alex Perfect helps John keep active |
Kicking off a young child’s future
Football training with Arsenal coach helps boy with cerebral palsy show what he can do
PROVIDING children with the best start in life is a concern for every parent but if your child has cerebral palsy, keeping them active is essential.
Despite tough obstacles, Gospel Oak schoolboy John, 8, and his two younger brothers, Julius, 7, and Leeroy, 5, play football together every Sunday on Hampstead Heath under the auspices of Arsenal Football Club community coach, Alex Perfect.
John’s mother, Michelle Murray, 40, worked as a civil servant in Vancouver, Canada, until 1998, when she met Leeroy, her husband.
Mrs Murray said: “When Alex said John could join and we watched him stumbling with the ball I felt like crying.
“After so many years of being told what he can’t do, watching him being given the opportunity to play football like other children was really special.”
The young family are the third generation to have lived at Mr Murray’s childhood home in Castlehaven Road, Kentish Town.
At first the Murrays were told their son was a slow developer but finally, aged one, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
“We put him on the floor and he’d cry because he couldn’t lift his head.
“If I sat him upright he’d flop over,” said Mrs Murray.
“But he was alert, he could hear and babble and respond,” she added.
The Murray’s account of the swift actions of the Royal Free after diagnosis is testament to the quality of the support networks in place.
Mr Murray said: “At the same time they gave us a diagnosis, they started giving us techniques and advice on how to handle him.”
Even with the daily massage, physiotherapy, Botox injections and the orthotics John uses, hip problems and even dislocations are common with the condition.
Sufferers may also experience seizures.
Mr Murray added: “The complications can increase. It’s degenerative in that when he gets older, if we don’t abate the symptoms, if we’re not continually trying to help him sit up straight or walk better, he gets a series of other, secondary symptoms.”
Before John started at Gospel Oak school in September, Mrs Murray completed a 10-week course at The Elfrida Rathbone Centre in Dowdney Close, Kentish Town, which offers advice and support for people with special needs and their families.
Through staged telephone calls, tribunals and meetings, the course aims to help parents of children with special needs feel prepared for the challenges they are bound to face when their child starts school.
One of the most significant issues is the “statementing” process whereby the local education authority is bound by an obligation to provide agreed specific services for a child with special needs.
In John’s case this includes appropriate seating, a special colourful keyboard with extra large keys, a school physiotherapist, one-to-one assistance and a walking frame.
Mrs Murray said: “It’s the first time in eight years I understand what rights parents have and what rights my son has as a disabled person.”
People diagnosed with cerebral palsy can go on to lead full and independent lives – even parenthood.
“We are aiming for John to be 100 per cent independent when he’s 18,” Mrs Murray said. “We are hoping he’ll capitalise on what he can do and contribute to society.” |
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