A three-year-old with cerebral palsy affecting his legs is running 500m of his school playground – to support his parents’ charity run.
Lee and Georgina Fallows’ boy Jacob was born with the condition and has received care from Vranch House and Bow Bears pre-school.
As a way of giving back to both organisations, Jacob’s parents – who are retired navy officers – decided to run 150 km (93 miles) each during January.
But on day ten of the fundraising their son decided that he was going to help out his parents.
And every day the three-year-old from Bow, Devon is running three laps of the playground at Bow Bears Pre-School with the help of his walker.
When he concludes his last lap it will equate a total of 500 meters covered.
Dad Lee, 38, said it: “It makes all of us really proud to be honest.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with Jacob’s cognition and comprehension of the world around him – he is very bright and emotionally aware.
“He is really keen and understands that we are raising money for charity.
“The fact that he wants to get involved as well shows a greater level of understanding from him.
“He has got a walking frame that he can hold on to and he is able to then run around and propel himself to get where he needs to be.”
Jacob was diagnosed with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy – which affects the mobility in his legs.
He is unable to walk independently without his walker.
But he is “very tactile” – meaning that his hands and arms work fine.
Mum Georgina, 46, said: “He holds our hand whenever he is going anywhere because of his balance and coordination. The brain power that would take him to walk a certain amount of distance is much higher percentage-wise.
“For him to decide that he is going to do laps every day is a really big physical challenge for him.
“His cerebral palsy is essentially brain damage which means his brain doesn’t necessarily talk to his legs.
“Because he is so young and he goes through a number of physiotherapies we are retraining his brain to talk to his legs so that it gets the feedback to being able to stand and walk.
“His brain is having to learn a different way how to balance and how stand. His muscles are really tight.
She added: “Whilst he is young getting him as flexible as he can to allow his muscles to do what he is meant to do and balanced with physiotherapy will be really good in the future for him.
“Any kind of fitness exercise that we do are based around fitness because it encourages him to get on with his exercise.”
Jacob’s sister Olivia, 9, has also decided to take part in the challenge and she will be running 30km by the end of this month.
And his school friends are being supportive of his challenge – and have been recording all his runs to create a final timelapse video.
“The staff and the children are really supportive and encouraging of Jacob’s mobility,” said Lee.
Lee and Georgina have been aiming to run 6km a day and have already raised over £2,400 through their joint efforts.
The money raised for Bow Bears pre-school will go towards equipment for children with additional needs such as an indoor climbing frame and sensory lights.
Vranch House will use the funds to expand on a sensory garden, which the Fallows family raised money for last year through their 6,000 press-up challenge.
The family have set up a JustGiving page to aid their fundraising: www.justgiving.com/page/fallows-family-fundraiser-vh
