Help for disabled youngsters

ISAAC Barker's best tenth birthday present would be to learn skills that many youngsters take for granted.

A specialist, known as a conductor, has been brought over from Hungary's Peto Institute to help children, including Isaac, learn and develop basic skills such as walking, crawling, sitting and feeding themselves.

The Peto Institute was established to help children with cerebral palsy learn basic life skills and specialists train for as long as doctors in our country, to learn their craft.

Isaac, who soon celebrates his tenth birthday and suffers from cerebral palsy, brain damage, severe epilepsy and other ailments, is having help with his walking and manipulation skills.

It was thought that the youngster would never sit up, let alone walk, but now he can walk with a frame.

His mother, 36-year-old Sarah Barker from Bacton, near Stowmarket, said: "It's fantastic to see him progressing, it is really inspiring. Some of the children are less disabled than Isaac and watching their progress is phenomenal.

The specialist is in Suffolk for three weeks and is in the country thanks to the generosity of Stowmarket Lions and parents raising the money needed to fund the specialist treatment from Eva Baloghne Keresztyen.

Another child to benefit is four-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer, Jacob Edwards, from Elmsett, near Ipswich, who is learning basic skills such as crawling.

His mother Sue Edwards, 35, who adopted him, said: "He is being taught how to crawl and when standing, to keep his knees in, and stand straight.

"Balance is a big issue for him, he has a weak right side.''

n If you would like to help in raising funds, or have a child who would benefit from such treatment, please telephone Mrs Russell on 01728 638268.