Tuesday 7 February 2012

Industry Rallies to the Joshua Appeal

As a result of a horrific car accident last year, nine-year old Joshua Dudley sustained life-threatening injuries and was assumed dead at the scene of the crash.

However, thanks to the rapid response of the paramedics and the air ambulance, Joshua was air lifted to Birmingham’s Children Hospital where he was stabilised on a life support machine. Joshua’s fight for life hung in the balance for eight days and he remained in a coma for the following seventy-three days.

Waking from his coma Joshua was diagnosed with multiple and severe mental and physical disabilities. His lifeline to regaining a normal life came from the UK’s leading rehabilitation centre for paediatric acquired brain injuries ‘The Children’s Trust’ based in Tadworth, Surrey. Here he was assessed and approved for funding, albeit that the consultants warned of the likelihood of little or no progress in the first year of treatment. Despite this Joshua has defied all odds and is making phenomenal progress on his road back to the life of an active and independent boy.

Despite the positive progress at Tadworth, Joshua still needs a further three months specialist treatment to regain many of his basic functions; unfortunately the family’s local Primary Care Trust in Walsall, West Midlands has withdrawn the possibility of any further funding, denying Joshua the chance of regaining a relatively normal life.

When the plight of a critically injured boy, whose rehabilitation had been threatened by a lack of local NHS funding, reached the ears of Kevin O’Reilly, Operations Director at Securefast plc, he immediately pledged support in helping to raise the much needed money to continue the treatment.

Kevin, who at the age of seven had himself been involved in a road accident, spearheaded the campaign to raise donations from friends and business colleagues in the architectural hardware industry. As Kevin commented “Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of friends at Wolverhampton Judo Club, colleagues at Securefast and local companies such as Aspray 24, Cooke Brothers, J. Banks, Exova, Strand Hardware, Butler Patternmakers, Stag Marketing and Russell James Design we are delighted to be in a position to send an initial cheque for £1500 to the Joshua Dudley Appeal, with other companies sending cheques direct to the appeal. We were pleased to play a small part in helping Joshua and we send him our sincere best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery”.




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