The Community Link Foundation was delighted to be able to assist a grant request from Julie Kirby, Mother of Daniel Van Der Velden.
Julie contact Community Link Foundation requesting a grant to assist in the fundraising effort to allow Daniel to have special therapy only available in the Belgium.
Daniel Van der Velden was born on the 8th May 2004 and shortly diagnosed with dystonic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. This means he cannot talk, sit by himself or use his arms and legs independently. He was in hospital for the first three weeks of his life. He had to be tube fed through a nasal gastric tube until he was nine months old.
Julie told Community Link Foundation “We discovered ABR Belgium in January 2011. The inventor of ABR Leonid Blyum finally helped us to understand Daniel’s condition. He explained on his web site that most children’s development in the GMFCS 5 category (which Dan is) will have plateaued at their peak function around 3.5 years. These children then tend to loose function from 9 plus years. He goes into great detail and theory using case studies to explain why the children change using ABR. As an Occupational therapist I had not come across such a holistic and comprehensive therapy with case evidence such as this before. It was a godsend. This subtle pressure based massage type therapy is aimed at improving inner core strength in the connective tissues which goes on to improve development. Our hope for Dan is that his head control; hand function and speech will improve. The closest centre to the UK is in Belgium. The ABR centre in Belgium trains us and then we have to apply the therapy on Dan for about two to three hours a day. It is our goal to raise money to help pay for the visits. It costs around 1500 euros a visit, 4 times a year”
Daniel has his own website www.doitfordan.org which gives updates on his progress and allows individuals and organisations to continue supporting his ongoing treatment.
“Community Link Foundation are committed to helping enhance the lives of local people and grant request was unanimously supported by the trustees” said Chairman David Barron “we are now starting to see more grant applications coming in and we would encourage any individuals or organisations who feel that we can help to get in touch, our grant criteria is available on our website www.clfoundation.co.uk”
David also explained that the Foundation are also looking for individuals and organisations to raise funds which the Foundation can put to good use in the local area and if anybody would like to get involved please email rhutchinson@clfoundation.co.uk or call 01704 531080.
