A couple are desperately trying to raise funds to purchase a powerchair for their 10-year-old son who is no longer able to walk.
Louis Jackson has muscular dystrophy and struggles to leave the house without the use of a wheelchair. The genetic condition causes the muscles to weaken, leading to an increasing level of disability.
His family, from Spennymoor, County Durham, are unable to go out together as Louis does not like being pushed in a wheelchair. His parents Sarah and Sam Jackson, both 44, are hoping to purchase a powerchair which he can operate himself.
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The couple, who are also parents to William, 14, and Lottie, six, are using their £6,000 savings, which will cover half of the cost of the Trekinetic GTE Ultra Lightweight All Terrain Powerchair, which costs £12,850. They are trying to raise the rest through an online fundraising page and people’s generosity.
Sarah, who works as a primary school teacher, said: "Louis can no longer walk up and down stairs, we have to carry him. He can’t get in and out of cars, sometimes his legs just give way.
"We usually go walking and now we can't He does have a wheelchair from the NHS but we have to push that. He doesn’t like that, he thinks people are looking at him. He's refused to use it.
"We found out about this powerchair which he can operate himself. It gives him more independence. As it's an off-road one, we can go on walks. We can start going out again with the rest of the family and we're not having to push him, he can do it himself.
"It doesn’t look like his regular wheelchair, which is important to Louis. It looks quite cool. But it's not available on the NHS, it’s got a huge price tag."
The couple found out Louis had muscular dystrophy when he was three years old. Sarah said the nursery which Louis' attended had a movement specialist and concerns were raised about his ability to stand up.
She said: "He was born with it but we didn’t know until he was three. He was finding it hard to go from sitting to a standing position and he found it hard to get up off the floor. We noticed he was behind his peers in meeting physical milestones. He couldn’t keep up when he was running.
"We thought it was going to be juvenile arthritis. We got a phone call saying this consultant wanted to see us. She wanted to come to the house so we knew it was something really serious. She came down, sat us down and said: 'He’s got muscular dystrophy, we don’t know what type at the moment'.
"We have got no family history so it was completely out of the blue. It was a real shock for the whole family."
Sarah and Sam, who runs his own business called Scouted which delivers outdoor education, discovered Louis had a form of muscular dystrophy called Becker, which gradually makes the body's muscles weaker and smaller.
She said: "It’s progressive so it starts affecting his legs first then it will start affecting his arms and then eventually his breathing and he will be fully immobile. Unfortunately he may not live as long as other people that do not have to condition.
"It’s not a great prognosis but we just concentrate on the present. We take each day as it comes."
Sarah has set up a Go Fund Me page and more than £1,000 has already been donated by members of the public.
She said: "With a powerchair Louis can go to the park on his own, go around to his friend's house and play in the street. His brother and sister can go out and play in the street and he can’t. It's going to give him independence so he can keep up with his peers.
"For the family it will just be life-changing because we are just sitting at home, or we have to do things separately. It means we can do things as a family again."
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