FIFTY one balloons took to the skies on Wednesday in a poignant salute to a missing son and to mark a new fund raising chapter for a Redditch family.
Cerebral palsy sufferer Richard Brown died on April 4 this year and December 7 would have been his 52nd birthday.
His mum Sue chose to mark the occasion outside his favourite watering hole, The Sportsman in Peakman Street, and by handing over a cheque for £1,015 to Craig Mullins, whose two twins Elsie and Eva, aged two, both have cerebral palsy.
“I know how tough it is to have a child with cerebral palsy – having one child was expensive enough so I know those girls will need a lot of help,” said Sue.
“When Richard was growing up we had no help at all, apart from a donation from Redditch Carnival. I was up and down to Birmingham every fortnight getting him new orthopaedic boots at £7/10s a time.”
The cheque for Elsie and Eva came from a sponsored parachute jump by Sue’s granddaughter Katja Bell and other members of the Redditch community have also rallied round to help Craig and his partner Kaylee Green.
“People in the town have been really good; Jade Phillimore and Sammy Knight ran the Birmingham half marathon and raised £1,400 for us and my friend Martin West did a charity night at Steps in Headless Cross and raised about £500,” said Craig, from Church Hill.
“These girls are fighters and they’ve come on leaps and bounds – they go to physio in Birmingham every week and mix with other children and do lots of activities which do them good.”
And Craig, who works at Lear Corporation in Redditch, is also getting in on the fund raising act with plans to run the Birmingham full marathon in 2017.
If anyone would like to help fund raise for the family contact Sue Brown on 01527 550647.
