Helpy Hand, Splints and All My Awesome Kit

I have hemiplegia, which means the left side of my body needs extra encouragement. My left hand has a name in our house — Helpy Hand 🖐🏼 — and getting him (and my legs) the right kit has been a journey of its own. Here's the equipment that makes my independence possible.

Splints (AFOs)

My ankle-foot orthoses are basically part of my wardrobe — except I outgrow them faster than shoes (6cm in 7 months at my record 🙈). Every new pair starts with casting, and the BEST bit: choosing the patterns. Footballs, Harry Potter, mixed patterns, you name it — I treat odd splints the way other kids treat odd socks, deliberately 😎.

I now have two types: solid splints for everyday support, and hinged "bendy" splints that give my ankles more range for steps, slopes and rough ground — and make my muscles work harder, so we also use them deliberately on walks as sneaky physio. We've even added a carbon bar to correct my gait on one side.

When I outgrow a pair, we don't bin them — they go to charities that repurpose them for children in countries where orthotics aren't readily available. We did keep my very first tiny cast, though. I've definitely grown 😂.

Walkers, sticks and wheels

• Walking frames. We were told a walking frame was "a waste of money" for me. Mummy didn't believe them, found a new physiotherapist, and I've never looked back — I RUN in my frame now. As I've got stronger I've progressed to the harder-to-use R82 Crocodile walker that builds my gait (my NHS physios fought my corner for the right size). One of my frames even got a custom respray by a talented artist friend of Mummy's, in my football colours with my name down the side — better than I dreamed of.
• Walking sticks. I've gone from tripod sticks to proper walking sticks for places where my frame isn't practical. Heads-up for UK families: children's walking sticks are weirdly hard to find here — my tripods once took five months to arrive. Flexyfoot now make child-sized ones, delivered next day!
• My trike from Pashley Cycles. Pedalling is brilliant for my legs, and I've done whole charity rides on it — and made Mummy walk laps of the village while I ride 😂.
• Mobility scooter. My TravelScoot is for days when I want to go further than my legs will take me, funded with help from Newlife the Charity for Disabled Children. I trained up on quiet rural paths before graduating to town.
• All-terrain running pushchair. A Delichon, funded by Whizz Kidz, for festivals and rough ground beyond my range — Daddy provides the engine and I encourage him to go faster 🏃🏼.
• My electric chair. A rise-and-fall chair (~£3,700, funded by your fundraising through Just4Children plus Hull & District Cerebral Palsy Society and Rotary Club of Howden) that lets me transfer in and out myself and raise up to tables. My occupational therapist says it's exactly the one she'd have prescribed if budgets allowed. It has pink covers, gifted by Bennett Workplace Solutions. Obviously.

Home adaptations

Parallel bars for daily physio (they'll last me until big school), a Smirthwaite physiotherapy bench, a treadmill with a custom adjustable support bar made by the volunteer engineers at REMAP Hull & East Yorkshire, and a grab bar in the bathroom found and fitted by The Howden Bathroom Company — I saw the ones we use when out adventuring and asked for one at home, then declared it MINE when Grandad admired it 😂. Next project: a downstairs wet room. I've appointed myself site manager 🦺.

The little things that count

A gadget that stops the soap dispenser crashing into the sink. A lunch-tray attachment for my walking frame, made by REMAP, so I can collect my own school lunch — I'd always felt a bit left out until the first day I carried my own tray 🎉. A CEA card (£6, for over-5s with proof of disability) that gets a companion free cinema ticket at 90% of UK cinemas, because POPCORN 🍿.

None of this kit arrived by accident. Almost every piece exists because somebody fundraised, a charity stepped up, or Mummy refused to take "he won't manage that" for an answer. The right equipment doesn't just help me move — it lets me be the cheeky, independent boy I'm determined to be 👍🏼