SENSATIONAL REAL LIFE
Dionne Sparkes, 33, from Oswaldtwistle, Lincolnshire, is a proud mum to her very own superhero…
Lighting candles, I carried the cake out as everyone erupted into a sing song.
And holding his breath before blowing out the flame, my son Alex, then five, closed his eyes tight.
‘What did you wish for?’ both me and my husband Robin, 31, asked.
‘I can’t tell you that!’ Alex chuckled. ‘My birthday wish won’t come true if I do.’
Only, no more than five minutes later, he finally confessed.
‘I wished for my arm to grow back,’ he whispered to me.
In that moment, I wished Alex could have seen just how special he was.
Yet, Alex was at an age where he was beginning to know that he was different.
Something that came as a total surprise to us all when he was born.
‘One of his hands is behind his back, so we can’t see that,’ the nurse giggled at our 32-week scan. ‘But it looks like your baby is waving!’
‘Well at least he’s got 10 fingers and 10 toes,’ I laughed.
Or so Ithought…
When we welcomed Alex into the world at 2.05pm on 4 September 2015, weighing a healthy 6lb 9oz at Burnley General Hospital, the joke I’d made stuck with me.
Because when looking over at Alex, I noticed what could only be described as astump.
But with Alex put on my chest bundled in atowel, I had one thought.
He was sucking on his little stump
You’re acutie…
Sucking on his stump like adummy, he was the cutest baby I’d ever seen.
Even though none of our baby scans had detected Alex’s missing arm, we just assumed he was hiding away or not in agood enough position.
But knowing family members with certain disabilities, it was never an issue.
I knew that Alex would be more than capable, hitting milestones and enjoying life – it didn’t change who he was.
Bringing him home after spending 19 days in NICU, I couldn’t wait to show him off.
This is my son, he has a disability and we will love him no matter what, Iwrote on Facebook while Robin told our extended family.
Settling in to being anew parent, with Alex’s junglethemed bedroom in all its glory, the process was smooth.
Enjoying tummy time, he started crawling perfectly fine, propping himself up with his arm on the floor.
By 10 months he was given acosmetic arm, which would get him used to the idea of aprosthetic from ayoung age.
It didn’t provide any function, but Alex was always willing to participate.
And over time, he went from aplastic arm to a body function arm, too.
Our landlord even installed bannisters going up the stairs, so that Alex could balance hims
