Mother’s plea to help “cute” son who is “trapped” in the house

A mother has said her son’s life has been a “battle” since he was born.

Denise Hunter, 47, from Southport, admitted she struggled to bring up her four children, one with cerebral palsy, on her own while battling severe depression. Her children, Eleanor, 24, Sam, 17, Cameron, 16, and Benjamin, 8, were her reason to fight every day. But it wasn’t always easy.

Her third child, 16-year-old Cameron, was born with cerebral palsy following a “horrific birth”, which made life difficult for the family. The only relief he had was from a tricycle he bought Cameron when he was younger. Unfortunately, it has now outgrown it and mum is struggling to raise funds for a new one, meaning the family are ‘trapped’ in their home.

Read more: Expert reveals the best supermarket wines and which one is ‘worse than a cold’

Read more: Prison officers fear it will “go out any day now” at HMP Liverpool

Denise told the ECHO how life started to throw her challenges after Cameron was born. She said: “It was a horrible birth from the moment I went into labour. I didn’t have a cell phone, so my husband had to keep running to the phone box to call the hospital. I remember sitting in the bathroom while I was in labor, I eventually went to the hospital and was taken to a room.

“I told them (the doctors) that something was wrong. Then the next thing I knew there was a lot of pain, more than usual – I already had two children so I knew it wasn’t good – a flood of doctors came. and they said he was too far down the birth canal and would be put to sleep.

“He was born and there was nothing to tell when he was a baby (that he had cerebral palsy), I didn’t notice much. It’s just that he never fed since birth, we went to the doctors and they said that. It was a fever. This baby wouldn’t shut up, it was just crying and crying, it was depressing.”

Denise says Cameron was six months old before ‘things started moving’, she said: ‘We found out from the doctor that the health visitor had given us the wrong card – you should get a blue card for a boy and a red . card for a girl – we were given a red card for him which meant all his measurements were wrong for his age. I found out he was too small for a boy and that’s when things got moving.

“At nine months I saw a pediatrician and then he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He was small. He hadn’t eaten much for nine months, only then (at nine months) did he start feeding. We realized that it was He made a scan that showed the left side of his brain was dead, he would never use his right arm or leg.”

During this time, Denise sank into a “huge depression”. She claims she was unable to cope with the reality that she had a child with special needs.

But when Cameron turned five, things began to change for the better for the family and Cameron, who had never walked until this point, began to take his first steps. Denise said: “He must have been five when I got him his first trike, he used to fall asleep on it. I swear he made her legs move because she loved it so much.

“He wasn’t walking, he was still in diapers and still on medication, but we put him on his first trike and because he was strapped to it, he had to move his bad leg. I am adamant that he made it work.

“But then things went downhill with his father. I have divorced. Things had been hard, I opened my own flower shop – it was a dream – we were eating beans for months to finance it, it was very difficult. time – we ended up getting divorced”.

After the divorce, things went downhill for Denise and her family, they stopped going out, which meant Cameron lost the use of his legs and subsequently his ability to walk diminished.

The mother in three years since then met a new man and moved to Southport, where she had child number four – Cameron’s younger brother Benjamin. Denise said: “We settled here (in Southport) and he got his second trike, we got our legs moving again and things were good. We could do everything on this trike, it helped us as a family.

“But then it all stopped. My partner left and said he wanted his own space. I don’t think he could handle it. He derailed me because I loved him so much. I just couldn’t change depression, I thought my life was over and unfortunately that played on the kids.

“Everything stopped for the kids, we stopped going out on his tricycle, I couldn’t get myself together. I went through a terrible time, it was beyond depression. I didn’t want to be anywhere, I couldn’t get to the kids. to activities because of the baby and Cameron’s needs I couldn’t go to playgrounds or go around places like castles because I couldn’t manage Cameron alone It was a struggle my other kids missed out -a massive one because I fought.

Things are finally looking up for Denise, she says she’s “never been in a better place” and wants to be able to take her kids out again, but unfortunately Cameron is too big for his trike now and it needs a new one. Unfortunately, due to financial issues, Denise cannot afford a new tricycle for her son.

She said: “Because he is 16, he is now considered an adult, so we are not given any funding for this. We struggle because we also need a stair lift. He has now broken his collarbone twice from the fall. stairs and his foot on a bouncy castle. I have to stay with him constantly.

“The trike makes it so much easier for us as a family to get around and do things. It plays a huge part in Cameron’s life. My youngest is nine now and can ride a bike so he can go out together and means we could get out a lot more. It relies heavily on the tricycle.

“I want to give him the chance to have that, it would mean everything to him and me.”

Because of where the family live in Southport, it is very close to the beach, the trike would make family days out much easier. Denise added: “The last ten years have been awful, we’ve been blocked in every way. And, it’s lonely when it’s just me and the kids. I don’t socialize much so when we take the tricycle it means we can all go off and it will benefit us all.

“We are so happy as a family now, me and the kids, it would just mean we can do so much more together. Cameron can’t do much at the moment because he can’t walk far, he gets tired easily. He is such a lovely boy , he doesn’t have animosity, he doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, he’s just nice.”

You can donate to Cameron’s GoFundMe page here.

Don’t miss the biggest and breaking stories by subscribing to the Echo Daily newsletter here