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For the first 18 months of his life, our son, Kit, was a happy, kind, and helpful boy. He was reaching all his milestones, and his latest phrase was "there you go" for everything he got out of the dishwasher!

He began to have seizures linked to common illnesses such as tonsillitis. Then, out of the blue, he had a devastating 2-hour seizure in 2021 (with no known cause). This caused global encephalitis (swelling of the brain), and he was placed in a coma for 3 weeks to protect his brain. While he was in PICU at King's College Hospital, we were told he would not survive and to ring our family. After making the most painful phone calls a parent can have, we prepared ourselves to say goodbye to Kit and began the process of organ donation.

But our brave boy wasn't going to give up so easily. He came off the ventilator and could breathe on his own! We were told he would remain in a vegetative state, but after we moved to HDU and then to the ward, we started to notice small improvements. We were in hospital for 3 months before beginning our new life at home. We had only bought our new house 6 weeks before the seizure, and it was a doer-upper, to say the least!

We are incredibly grateful that Kit is alive and enjoying his life. However, he has been left with epilepsy, motor dysfunction, partial blindness, and life-changing brain damage. He can no longer talk, walk, or grab things—none of the things he was able to do before the seizure (except smile!).

We are fundraising to build an extension for him to have a room of his own downstairs with wheelchair access, a wet room bathroom, and access to the house so he can be with us. We may qualify for some government funding (£30,000–£60,000), but this will not cover the single-storey extension needed to future-proof his room, which has been quoted at £135,000. We are currently awaiting a stair climber and hoists to be fitted as an interim measure, as he is too heavy to be carried upstairs safely, and therapists will no longer lift him. On top of this, his specialist bath alone costs £16,000.

I am a primary school teacher working part-time to care for our children, and my husband Nick is a nurse at Demelza (a children's hospice and respite care). As we both have careers and a mortgage, we qualify for almost no support despite the huge costs involved in giving Kit a "normal," happy life—particularly for therapies, vehicles, and neurological support only offered privately. We also don’t qualify as carers, as we earn "too much" and therefore receive no carer’s allowance. Kit has huge potential to improve; we’ve seen him progress in strength, flexibility, vocalizations, and eyesight improvements, and it’s only been 2 years since the traumatic incident. He has defied everything the doctors said, but in order to continue to improve, he needs the space within our family home.

We know this is the worst possible time to be asking anyone to help us financially. However, we are desperate. We know it is a significant goal to reach the target and begin the building works.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Kaz, Nick, Kit, Orry, and Ellie (Kit's cousin, who also lives with us).

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7.5% of all donations to Tree of Hope in relation to this appeal will be allocated to the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope to cover our core operating costs.

If we raise insufficient funds, or surplus funds, then the funds will be used, if appropriate, to fund support for our child’s needs in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objects. If in those circumstances we are unable to use all or part of the funds for the benefit of our child in accordance with Tree of Hope’s charitable objectives, then any funds that cannot be used will be transferred to be used for the general charitable purposes of Tree of Hope.