Steve met Luke at his nephews christening and was amazed that despite all his difficulties he still ran around playing and enjoying himself.
Luke was born after a normal uneventful pregnancy. When he was born he was much smaller than his older brother and had a rash over his body but otherwise seemed healthy. After a few hours one of the midwives thought he should be checked over and at that point it was discovered he had low platelets and was taken to NICU in the middle of the night. 3 days later he was diagnosed with congenital CMV. He had microcephaly and calcifications on his brain. Luke spent the first 6 months of his life in and out of hospital. At 4 months old he was diagnosed with spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy.
At 6, Luke has just joined a mainstream school. He can walk, but has difficulties swallowing, is non verbal and is starting to show some signs of hearing loss. However he is the most determined, cheeky child ever and continues to defy the odds!
This young lad really inspired Steve, to believe that no matter the obstacles in front of us we can still pick ourselves up and carry on. He will be running the London marathon virtually and 6 weeks later will run the Cork marathon to raise money and awareness for CMV. When it gets tough he will think of Luke and know he would just pick himself up and carry on.