The family of a young boy who was left brain damaged after suffering two strokes before he’d even been born are looking to help improve his life and possibly the lives of others with disabilities.
Roman Wilson is now three years old and despite being left brain damaged is defying all doctors’ expectations for his development.
He is paralysed on his right hand side, has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and suffers from extremely painful muscle spasms.
But the keen football fan is able to walk a few steps with an aid and even play the game by shuffling on his bum.
To help him with the pain his family, including mum Lucy and dad Josh, are raising money to build a spa.
They’re initially looking to raise enough for one for the home.
But they would really like to help others too by raising around £30,000 to build a hydra pool outside their Holbeach home to be open to other disabled people locally.
Lucy describes Roman as “cheeky” and “an inspiration”.
“He’s got a cracking sense of humour and is a very smart little boy who doesn’t miss a thing”, she said. “When we were told Roman had brain damage it was like our whole world came crashing down.
“Nobody thought he was going to do as well as he has.
“He’s doing so, so well, but he’s doing it having to fight every day of his life
“We just want to do everything we can to help him win that fight.
“We want to make sure he has the best and most independent life possible.”
Lucy says the pool would help ease Roman’s pain which in turn will help improve his development.
“Roman struggles with the pain in particular, and he does have medication for it, but it doesn’t always work,” Lucy continued. “This would make such a difference to the pain he’s in.
“What we’d like to do is to build something that could be beneficial to the community.
“We could just build a pool, but we want to open it up to all of those with a disability who would benefit from it.
“We’re part of the Little Discoverers group where Roman’s made a lot of friends and there’s just nothing around this area like a hydra pool.
“He already weighs 3st so it’s not easy getting him in and out of the bath and he’s on the autistic spectrum so places like a normal swimming pool may have lots of noise which can be quite a bad trigger.
“We’ve had such a fantastic response from the community too – we’d like to do something that lasts a number of years.”
A host of events are being planned to raise the money required including The Roman Festival.
The event, which is due to take place in Donington on October 17, will include a celebrity football match, live music and food and drink.
Roman himself is set to attend with a special kit sponsored by Believe Sport which is running football training sessions for children with special educational needs.
Tickets are available at https://billetto.co.uk/e/the-roman-festival-tickets-527877
“We’re really looking forward to it,” said Lucy, with both her and Josh, a retained firefighter based at Holbeach, overwhelmed at the support they’re getting from the community.
“The doctors have said that without the work we’ve put in Roman wouldn’t be where he is today but that’s also down to the physio he get from the NHS, who are amazing, and the work of Karen Kitney’s ‘Portage’ sessions at The Garth School.
“All of the community have been supporting him and I get a great response from putting videos of him on Facebook.”
You can donate to the bid to build the hydra pool here.
