Mauchline: Parker family raising money to help Rudi

Sarah and Robert Parker have embarked on a fundraising plea to be able to take their son Rudi to various physiotherapy sessions across the country and Europe.

The family, along with support from the rest of Ayrshire, is raising money to help Rudi with physio trips to England, and possibly to a state-of-the-art paediatric centre in London.

When he was born, six-year-old Rudi was a healthy baby, and there were no concerns with him, according to mum Sarah.

Sarah, Robert and Rudi celebrating his sixth birthday. (Image: Submitted) “A few months down the line he didn’t meet some milestones like sitting up on his own and tracking with his eyes, and things like that," Sarah told the Chronicle.

“We were referred to a paediatrician and when he was about nine or ten months they started to look into things with Rudi.

“When he was around a year old, we got told he had low muscle tone.

“We were referred to various specialist and various tests and still to this day he’s not had a proper diagnosis."

Low muscle tone is said to be a condition that’s a symptom of something else, but Rudi had been ruled out for all of potential causes, which, understandably, left Sarah and Robert dumbfounded.

Rudi attends various therapy sessions (Image: Submitted) Once the parents came to terms with what this would mean for Rudi and that it will likely mean he will require some kind of support for the rest of his life, they set about looking at how they could help their beloved son and improve his standard of living.

Like many youngsters, Sarah says that Rudi is full of life and wants to be as mobile as he can.

The therapies that Rudi currently goes through involves a lot of travelling, and they don't come cheap.

Sarah said: “One of the therapies is called CME and is a specialist therapy about giving the brain the ability to grow and learn.

“There’s only one specialist that offers this in England, so these therapies involve a lot of travelling, maybe three or four times a year.

“We both work and we take our holidays to take Rudi to these sessions and we’ve exhausted all our savings, so it got to the point where we thought that we’ll need to ask for some help.

“His therapy is going to go on for the foreseeable future, so this will keep going and we had to bite the bullet, because we couldn’t sustain it on our own.

“These therapies are really expensive. You’re talking about £100 an hour, so it really adds up."

Just like Mauchline always seems to do, the community rallied round the Parkers and quickly raised well over £10,000 to cover the costs of these therapies.

Efforts have ranged from a local quiz night, to neighbours scaling Mount Kilimanjaro to raise cash.

Neighbours, Kylie and John, before climbing up Kilimanjaro. (Image: Submitted) Reaching the summit. (Image: Submitted) Seeing Rudi make small developments keeps the parents motivated to keep fighting.

“Rudi has made a lot of progress through this and we’ve seen him growing and getting stronger and being able to sit himself," Sarah added.

“He’s a precious angel and we wouldn’t change him for the world. But at the same time, you hate to see your wee one go through things like this.

“When we see the progress in him, it really does give us the strength to keep pushing on for him."

Although he is non-verbal, Sarah says that Rudi shows that he wants to keep moving and pushing himself.

From struggling to sit and hold himself up, Rudi can now move himself around with the aid of a walking frame.

Rudi is supported with a walking frame. (Image: Submitted)Going forward, there's hopes to take him for extreme specialist treatment at the new world-renowned NAPA Centre in London, with Rudi on the waiting list for a spot next year.

Sarah continued: “The support we’ve had from the people of Mauchline and beyond has really blown us away.

“We’re so grateful, because we know times are hard just now an there seems to be a lot going on even just in Mauchline, but the generosity is incredible.

“We still have some dark times, but things like this gives us hope and we can see his potential and we just want to do the best we can for him."

You can support Sarah and Robert's battle for Rudi online.