To explain why I wrote this book, I will need to start fourteen years ago when our eldest son; Aaron was born with a very rare syndrome and special needs, but despite what the doctors said, he could still walk and talk and was just like any other child.

He went through a stage when he needed a tube in his throat to breathe, he had a few operations, and had lots of hospital appointments every week, but it was nothing we couldn’t handle together as a family.
 
We went through immeasurable trials with Aaron while we carried on with life, not least of all having two more children (both healthy).  Then my fourth son; Deion was born prematurely, has cerebral palsy as a result and is also a wheelchair user.
 
Then all our lives changed dramatically eight years ago when Aaron lost his ability to walk, talk and chew properly and also became a wheelchair user. 

Aaron was then diagnosed with a muscle wasting disease, and given roughly six months to live….but before you start to feel sorry for us all, I would like to explain what a fighter Aaron was.  You have never met a more determined, loving and to be quite honest ‘mad’ child.

We didn’t sit around waiting for something awful to happen, we fund raised like mad; which included me doing a couple of bungee jumps  and me shaving my hair from waist length to a number one all over (not a good look for me). We took the children to Disney World and then to swim with the dolphins.   A wish foundation also sent us to Lapland (Aaron got everything he wanted that year I can tell you).  We did everything we could to keep Aaron strong and give him something to look forward to, it often involved going without and even selling the car one year to get Aaron to the dolphins, but his health came first.

He tried rock climbing, canoeing, abseiling, white water rafting, loved horse riding and archery (although his dad though I was mad to let Aaron lose with a bow and arrow). And let’s face it, most people live eighty years and don’t do half those things. 

Then in March 2005 Aaron went down with pneumonia due to a further muscle weakening and was nil by mouth and oxygen dependant 24hrs a day. But Aaron stayed happy and strong, and even though his activities were limited, he fought on.  Until February of last year when Aaron got a bug and then declined quickly and went into organ failure.

He did shock the doctors by getting well enough to come home for me to care for him, but we think it was because he wanted to be at home with his family in his special dolphin bed. Tragically we lost Aaron on 5th March 2006, and the loss is something I cannot even put into words.

The funeral was truly special, he had a casket hand painted with his dolphins, balloons instead of flowers, and the church was so packed people couldn’t even get in the door, we even had fireworks.  His day was as special as him and brothers and sister chose exactly what they wanted for him. 

The problem I then faced was that I had  spent years training myself to survive on three hours sleep a night because of all Aaron’s care.  So I was left with a huge void in more ways than one. The first thing I did was to put it all down on paper; I spent hours sitting at the computer writing about our amazing lives together. This is actually how the book came about, and if just one person learns a lesson from Aaron's strength and loving nature, then I will be very proud of myself.

  
To order your copy of the book click here 

Click here to see more photos

Click here for a preview of the book