£2008.60 raised for a great cause..
Oh what a night!
Being a supplier of machines to local Pubs & Clubs we have been looking to help a local charity. We spotted a very sad story of a local Coventry lad called Tristan. As soon as we saw this story we knew we had found the right cause to help and we had fun at the same time.
Tristan is a young lad who was born very suddenly 9 weeks prematurely in 2009. Despite him being so early, he had a very straightforward stay on the Neonatal Unit and they were lucky to be home within 5 weeks. But on their last day in hospital they were told that Tristan had Cerebral Palsy (CP). At one day old his blood pressure dropper leading to a lack of oxygen in his brain.
CP causes stiffness in limbs and joints making it difficult for Tristan to walk, dress, and “normal” everyday things that we take for granted. Tristan is lucky that he doesn’t have any additional and associated difficulties such as trouble speaking and eating. He never moans about going to appointments or doing his physio exercises, even if these means he misses out on playing with his friends. He has learnt to stay stood up in his walker even when his younger brother Ioan is wobbling & leaning against on him!
CP is caused by damage to the brain meaning messages don’t get through properly to the muscles. Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) is surgery on the spinal column where the nerves stopping the messages getting from the brain can be identified and isolated. They then simply cut them, releasing almost all the stiffness (keeping some so they can still stand up!). Intensive physio follows to teach those formally stiff, but actually quite weak, muscles to work in the right way. Tristan’s CP causes his groin muscle to be constantly ‘on’ meaning it is hard for him to walk correctly. Tristan uses a kaye-walker (kind of like a backwards zimmer-frame!) but he struggles due him having to concentrate on relaxing his legs to move in a stepping motion, and remembering to keep his core muscles strong to hold him up. He could fall frequently. SDR is not a magic cure, but it will give him increased freedom of movement and therefore the opportunity to learn to walk. If it simply helps him learn to dress himself or get on and off the loo it will be wonderful and worth it. Tristan’s family received devastating news after hearing that the NHS are no longer funding this operation so they are having to raise the money themselves through various Fundraising activities.They are hoping to be able to take Tristan to America where the best surgeon in world is – at St Louis Children’s Hospital.
So we set about arranging a Curry night at our local curry house, Aktbars in Coventry. As soon as we told family, staff and friends all about Tristan it hit a chord especially reading about the NHS pulling this young lad’s operation (that is a discussion for another time!)
We sold 70 tickets and were given numerous prizes by local businesses and friends including Costco who we supply our Pool Tables to.
The Night went down a Storm and was hosted by Marketing Director, Mark Greig who got all the guests to dig deep in their pockets for Tristan. After they had had a few beers of course!
Tristan himself made a guest appearance with his dad Sam and that really did hit home to everyone there why we were here, not only to have fun but for this young lad.
Everyone did Tristan proud. We were extremely pleased to hand over to his family £2008.60 raised on the night. With more donations still coming in. The family are very close to their target now. We at Comrie Automatics will be doing more ourselves as a business to make sure they achieve the £30,000 needed so hat Tristan can walk.
Below is a picture of Tristan at our office with Mark and we are looking forward to the day he walks into our office unaided. You can read more about Tristan and his fund raising here;
https://www.facebook.com/tristans.target
Mark & Tristan