Driving Life Forward – An article published in Living with Disability Magazine
After over 20 years in his field Roger Dakin and his team at the Smile Centre understand the challenge of finding answers to physical problems on a daily basis. Achieving the fullest potential of individuals has always been the driving aim of Smile.
Finding the determination to create a full life takes great imagination and drive from both the individual and more vitally the support team around them.
Freddie Stanley is a prime example of a young man with a tremendous team of family and supporters making a difference and carving out a productive future for him despite his physical limitations.
When Roger first met Freddie he heard the story of his birth from his mother Sonia.
‘If he lives, your child is likely to be a vegetable,’ the Paediatric Consultant told Sonia, 24 hours after Freddie’s dramatic entrance into the world. Looking at her son, lying in an incubator struggling for life, the word ‘vegetable’ was more shocking than the actual message he was attempting to deliver of the damage done during Freddie’s delivery.
13 years on and, far from being a vegetable, Freddie is a vibrant, strong young man, with a steely will and a thirst for all that life has to offer. With the great positive energy of his mother, ‘Team Freddie’ has seen his move into one of Smile’s Smart Mustangs.
In 2009 an ITC specialist came to visit Freddie at his home and enquired as to whether he had ever tried using a SMART powerchair. Sonia recalls being bemused and unsure of how this severely disabled boy was expected, with little movement, no speech and limited sight to operate an electric wheelchair? Gently she persuaded Sonia to consent to a trial session and this marked a turning point in their lives.
