Thomas was brought to my attention earlier today. As gamers, we tend to be a generous lot. This is simply another opportunity to be generous for a worthy cause.
You can donate for Thomas at this link
The Tavern will match up to the first £100 donated by readers of The Tavern by the end of the week, Saturday December 17th, 2016. Please indicate your donation in the comments to this post.
What follows is the text from the donation page:
We organized a sponsored 24 hour Dungeons and Dragons session to help raise money to support a young boy called Thomas with Cerebral Palsy.
I was Thomas' key person at his nursery and I can't tell you how wonderful and resilient this little guy is. He is always making everyone smile and we would love to return the favour!
It would mean the world to him and his family if you could help him get SDR (Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy) surgery which is sadly unavailable on the NHS in the UK, and would greatly increase his chances of walking, running and dancing!
This would cost a total of £75,000 with surgery, physiotherapy and aftercare and so as much as you can donate would be incredible!
The stream took place on Saturday 19th November 2016 from 12pm midday (GMT) until the following Sunday 20th November 2016 12pm midday (GMT) on our Twitch stream:
http://www.twitch.tv/helpthomastodance
(You can now watch all of the sessions on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFjSGK2z__8B23ujBDIAM5g)
There will be one more session to support Thomas streamed on our Twitch channel in approx. 4-6 weeks!
For those who do not know what this entailed, there is around 2-3 days of planning for 4 hours of Dungeons and Dragons and so a session of this length will take around 12-18 days to plan and get ready for upfront.
It will also mean finding at least 3-4 people to play the characters in the story at a time, and will likely mean having at least 12 people involved to take turns and share the 24 hours. I was the storyteller, or Dungeon Master, throughout the entire 24 hours, helping players to find conclusions to their often questionable actions alongside enforcing rules.
The story led our characters through our fantasy world of Vanderuum, with elves, orcs, magic, monsters and dungeons. They will interact with different people, and decide how they solve problems in the world, as the story unfolds for everyone.
You will be able to watch us live through a Twitch stream so that you can watch as we play through our session, and donations during the stream will help or hinder the players through donation rewards.
Anything you can donate will be greatly appreciated and will help a wonderful child to gain more independence.
If you can not donate then please share to as many people as you can!
You can follow our twitter at:
https://twitter.com/DnDtoHelpThomas
#helpthomastodance @dndtohelpthomas
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(From the Help Thomas to Dance page:
http://www.treeofhope.org.uk/thomas-story-help-thomas-to-dance/)
Thomas and Dylan arrived on the 4th January 2013 very early, nearly 10 weeks early. Weighing less than 3lbs they had to fight hard to survive but they did and thankfully soon began to put on weight and grow strong.
After 10 weeks in SCBU ( Special Care Baby Unit) they came home and finally we were free to hold and nurse our babies- after 10 weeks in hospital we were free to take care of our boys. They thrived.
We all fell in love.
An MRI scan at 2 years of age showed that Thomas has some neurological damage. A diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy was confirmed.This explained why he had been slow to reach many of the expected physical milestones.
Thomas is now 3 years old. He continues to make good progress but he is still unable to stand or walk independently. Thomas is able to walk with his walker and enjoy chasing his brother around but he wants to do more, he wants to catch him!
He needs SDR ( Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy) surgery to increase the chances of being able to live and walk independently.
The cost of having this life changing treatment in the UK is approximately £45,000.
To give Thomas the best chance of benefiting from the surgery and subsequent physiotherapy, it’s important that he goes into the operation as strong as possible.
He needs intensive physiotherapy and numerous specialist pieces of equipment to build up this strength. The cost of pre-op equipment is likely to be £5,000 to £10,000.
Physiotherapy and equipment post-op will be a further £10,000 each year for 2 to 3 years after the operation. Therefore we want to try and raise £75,000 in order to give him the best possible outcome.
If you would like to make a donation, organize an event, be sponsored or donate a prize to be auctioned please do. Your help will be life changing and would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.
