Aiming Higher

YOU CAN DONATE TO AIMING HIGHER USING THE FOLLOWING METHODS:

WEBSITE | www.aiminghighercharity.org.uk/donate JUST GIVING | www.justgiving/aiminghigher/donate/ PAYPAL | Found on Aiming Higher website or call to make donations by phone POST | Aiming Higher, 231 – 233 Church Street, Blackpool, Lancashire FY1 3PB. To see more of what we do please visit our website www.aiminghighercharity.org.uk or follow us on facebook @aiminghighercharity.

Please ring us on 01253 206447 for further information.

FROM TODDLER TO STARTING SCHOOL - how Aiming Higher’s Pre-School Activities helped us

PICTURED ABOVE: Alanna at her first Aiming Higher visit back in 2017

In November 2017, 13 month old Alanna and her mum Helen walked through the doors of Aiming Higher for the first time. The council’s Portage team used the Aiming Higher Centre for some of their group sessions and they had come to attend one of these, unaware of the Charity or the support it offered to families just like theirs in Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre.

Alanna was born very premature and spent 132 days in hospital. She has several health conditions some from birth and others have developed over the years. Alanna was oxygen dependant and on an apnea monitor for severe BPD (a form of chronic lung disease) and had two types of holes in her heart when she first visited Aiming Higher. The holes have since corrected and Alanna only requires oxygen now when sleeping. She also has general and focal epilepsy, joint hyper mobility, delayed development, sensitive hearing, sensory issues, sleep issues and autistic traits.

Mum Helen said that the time she had been told the portage session would start was an hour out but that she was greeted with a warm welcome from the Aiming Higher team when they arrived and never looked back: “The Aiming Higher team opened the door with ‘come on in, it’s not time for the portage session yet, but we’re doing this, come and have a look, meet some parents’ and we went to the sensory wall and other families came to say hello and meet Alanna and I just thought how have I never heard of this place? When it quietened down Lisa came over and said this is a timetable of activities, you can come and join in at any time and there’s different parents here for you to get to know at different sessions. I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of the charity.”

Helen says that working with Aiming Higher and accessing the peer support that she got through attending the preschool sessions has really helped her self-confidence.

“I feel a lot more confident. Because prior to accessing Aiming Higher, my daughter was poorly, and while she did get respite care elsewhere it wasn’t like Aiming Higher where there was always someone on the team or another parent to

PICTURED ABOVE: Alanna joins in with a Jo Jingles session in July 2018

PICTURED ABOVE: Alanna enjoying a gardening activity in 2019 say, ‘if you need any help you can go to that service or ooh maybe that service could help you or even just sometimes have you tried this cream for her rash’. At the Aiming Higher sessions, we found ourselves discussing things you wouldn’t even think of if your child didn’t have that need - Like oxygen prongs, or special shoes.”

Helen felt that she couldn’t take Alanna, who was on oxygen 24-7 at the time to regular mums and tots groups – she had been lead to believe the oxygen tank was a Health & Safety risk because it was flammable and she also felt self-conscious with people staring: “the looks you’d get, oh the looks... but at Aiming Higher none of that existed, it always made us smile. When it was quiet, I was allowed to bring her extension cable so she could access the whole big room without moving her oxygen tank which was an absolute god send to her. Aiming Higher is so accessible for everyone with different medical conditions and wheelchairs, they are so supportive and it’s great to get real life information from an experienced team and other parents that you can’t get from Google.”

Alanna is now 4 and has just started school but Helen feels she has had a great start because of the pre-school activities at Aiming Higher. Even with covid restrictions interrupting she has accessed stay and play groups, gardening sessions, craft groups, swimming (where she didn’t let a little thing like an oxygen tube stop her from accessing a slide and soaking Ella, our activities co-ordinator, from head to foot!), trips out in the community and Makaton, a form of sign language. Alanna wasn’t keen on staying within the circle of children and parents at the Makaton classes and would sometimes get up to play with other toys in the room but she was still soaking things up like a sponge! Helen remembers, “They did Twinkle Twinkle Little Star one week and she’d walked off from the group but she took it all in because on the Sunday in the car she sang and signed the whole of Twinkle Twinkle. Even though she wasn’t in that circle she’d observed from a distance and then signed like for nearly an hour, Twinkle Twinkle on repeat and the sense of achievement on her face was just amazing.”

The family have also accessed family support through the charity and now that Alanna is at school, will continue to keep in touch by accessing the weekend trips and activities that Aiming Higher run monthly.

Like all charities, Aiming Higher saw fund-raising activity decrease in 2020 and 2021, so if you can support them in any way possible, any assistance will be gratefully received. Please send your ideas to: heatherholt@aiminghighercharity.org.uk