Help us, Help Carter

$10,705 donated

Given by 105 generous donors in around 4 months

This is to reach out to you all and give you some more information on Carter and what we are faced with... Noonan Syndrome.

Bay of Plenty

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Hi Everyone, Friends, Family and Lovely Humans :-)

So the reason we have decided to set up this givealittle page is to reach out to you all and give you some more information on Carter and what we are faced with.

Carter has Noonan Syndrome. This is a genetic disorder which will never go away. Noonan Syndrome could be hereditary or not, in Carters case it seems to be a random occurrence, we are still waiting for further test results. Noonan Syndrome is the second most common genetic disorder after Down Syndrome, and the scale of severity is varied. The resource that we would recommend if you want to find out more is: http://www.teamnoonan.org/information/

Carter definitely has issues related to all areas affected by the Noonan gene. He has to see more than TEN different specialists to advise and monitor all these different issues. The main concerns for Carter are: his heart, his feeding, and his development.

Because of these issues caring for Carter is complex and time consuming, emotionally and physically exhausting. Because of the level of ongoing care that is necessary, Sheri is unable to return to her job and has had to unfortunately resign. This creates a real financial strain for us as we had expected Sheri to be back at work months ago. Callum is working so hard! But has also had to have a lot of time off.

Sheri and Carter have had to attend up to five appointments each week, this has included trips to Rotorua and Auckland and next week (24/11/16) we are travelling to Waikato Hospital for Carters first surgery. Understandably this is a very tiring and stressful time for us so if you’re able to “givealittle” to help out with costs we would be extremely thankful.

Despite all these issues Carter is generally a happy, smiley baby and we are grateful to be his parents and be able to give him the best possible start to life.

We welcome and are happy to answer any questions you have, flick us a message, call us or come visit. We miss you all and wish we were more able to get out and about to show off our gorgeous boy to you.

Lots of love,

Callum, Sheri and Carter Hall <3

Callum and Sheri Hall's involvement (page creator)

Mum and Dad doing the best they can :-)

Not the end, just the beginning. 31 March 2017

Hello everyone.

Today's the final day of our givealittle page being open for donations and I know I should be doing a final push for donations because yes we will need them and yes the budget is tight but I can't. I can't and soon I will tell you why.

First an update on Carter.

Our little champ has pushed through hours of therapy, me hassling him to do things that are difficult for him and has achieved the biggest goal we had set for his first year. He sat up by himself at his first birthday party (a week or so before actually) and I couldn't be prouder. Sitting is still a big part of his therapy goals as he now needs to learn to use his arms to support himself and move side to side while sitting. Everything that comes naturally and smoothly to others he has to learn bit by bit, move by move. We have a great team of therapists though so I know he will achieve anything.

Carter has another surgery and an MRI scan of his brain coming up, both under general anesthetic in Waikato and another echocardiogram to check his heart prior to these. As well as continuing with regular visits with the pediatrician, cardiologist, dietician, speech therapist, physical therapists and homecare nurses. He greets them all with a cheeky smile and shyly snuggles into mum.

We continue to fight with getting enough calories into him for growth and are still up all night because of his intake needs, but he has had no backwards weights and is making steady progress so we keep trucking. He currently still wears 6 month old clothes :).

We would so love for you to meet him and see what a fantastic little guy he his.

But why can't I ask for your money today?

Because my heart is breaking. Breaking for another family affected by Noonan Syndrome and their time of great need is now. The Dowd family have two children with NS and tragically their youngest Isabella is nearing the end of her journey in this dimension. She has endured a life of hospitalizations, tubes, surgeries and pain but has experienced such an astounding, unconditional love from those around her. So please consider giving your final donation not to us and our goals and achievements but to the precious hopes and memories of wee Isabella. The link to their page will be in the top comment of my Facebook post or search 'Please help little Isabella Hope and her family' on givealittle.

Thank you xx

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