Hello all, I’m Jack’s Grandma (Nan) Angie, I was asked to do this write up by Jack’s mum, from my perspective, as this is his second time as UKIST December warrior, so here goes… So much has happened since Jack’s last update, I’d love to be able to say amazing changes have taken place, but […]
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Our May warrior Millie
Millie was born 9th September 2021, around Christmas/January time we noticed that she wasn’t using her right arm half as much as her left. After numerous doctor visits we were referred to a paediatrician. However, in March I noticed she was doing some unusual movements, a bit like she was being made to jump and […]
Our April ‘fair warrior’ Finley
We chose the name Finley as it means ‘fair warrior’ and he has certainly lived up to that name. From day one Fin has kept us on our toes! He was born quite poorly and had a seizure within hours of being born. Initially they thought he had been starved of oxygen at birth and […]
Outnumbered and The Realisation
Many of our members really related to the poem ‘Outnumbered’ by Becky Hemsley (shared here with her permission) which speaks about the experience of having a child with special needs and being made to feel they don’t measure up. More Becky Hemsley poetry The second poem was written by a member of our support group […]
World Down Syndrome Day – meet Reuben
Today is World Down Syndrome Day and also UKIST’s 7th birthday and to help celebrate I’m very honoured to be sharing my story about my beautiful boy Reuben. Reuben was born in January 2019 and came into the world rocking an extra chromosome. I knew in pregnancy that there was a 1 in 14 chance […]
Save your vision month
March is National Save your Vision Month – and vision is a hot topic for families of children with infantile spasms for two reasons; Firstly, Vigabatrin, one of the first line and most effective treatments for infantile spasms, has the potential to cause toxicity to the retina and permanent loss of peripheral vision. A diagnosis […]
Our February warrior Zack – stroke survivor and infantile spasms warrior
Zack’s story is written by his mum, Libby. A stroke around the time of birth or in the first few days of life is one of the most common underlying causes of infantile spasms developing at some point in the first year. Approaching the end of a completely normal pregnancy something was suddenly not quite […]
Back to school … part 2
Ella is 4 years old now and just starting mainstream foundation. She was diagnosed with infantile spasms at 16 weeks and then Aicardi syndrome when she was 2 years old. She has had a rocky few years since diagnosis and still battles seizures most days but is always smiling and happy. She is so pleased […]
Our July warrior Rosa
Rosa was born in July 2019 with no complications. She hit all her milestones and was a super happy settled baby. In February 2020 at about 5 months old she developed what I thought then was an eye twitch when she was just about to fall asleep or on awakening. Over the next three weeks […]
Our June warrior – and a silver lining for UKIST
Our June warrior is the daughter of Alice Goldhill who has since joined us as a trustee and has been invaluable in pushing forward our work to improve awareness within the medical profession. Daisy was born in October 2018 after an uneventful pregnancy. I remember feeling so lucky that our third child was here, and […]
