All the children who we are lucky enough to meet are special, but just occasionally one stands out. Aung Thu Phyo is one of these children. When we first came across him, he was just 5 years old and I noticed him because despite his severe spastic cerebral palsy, he was determined to make us sit up and take notice!

 

At that stage, Aung Thu Phyo couldn't sit up on his own and his muscle tone was so overpowering that he could not hold my gaze without a huge amount of effort. Yet, he always had a twinkle in his eye that forced me to keep looking back and to understand that this was a boy who was going places. Over the years with help from his folks, the Starflower teachers and Stepping Stones therapists, he has made huge progress.

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Now, aged 17, he can get himself around independently including getting from the floor to his own platform bed. He continues to use a communication board and is helped to expand his vocabulary with the help of a visiting Speech and language therapist from Shade Tree, one of our partner organisations. One thing hasn't changed and that is Aung Thu Phyo's ready sense of fun and his wonderful gift of making us all smile! Aung Thu Phyo is just great and we all love, and admire him.