Elliott W's quilt    (Quilt Completed)

Thank you

I can not begin to put into words how much we all love Elliott's quilt and how very grateful we are for all the hard work you have put into it. It really is beautiful :-) Thank you to everyone who stitched the squares and the lady who put it all together, also to the people behind the scenes who organise it all. Even though he is tired and grumpy after school he had lots of smiles as he realised who each character is :-) Thank you all so very much xxx

Finished photos

Individual squares

Fabric

Card

Stitched by: Ali Sewing Room

Biography

Elliott was born 3 weeks early and was in a huge hurry to arrive. When he was born we noticed a rash covering his body and his spleen was enlarged. He was taken to SCBU and blood/urine tests were taken. We were told on Christmas day that Elliott had CMV, a virus that I had unknowingly passed to him early on in my pregnancy.

CMV is a virus most people will have had during childhood, it was just bad luck that I hadn't already had the virus. This caused damage to Elliott's brain as it was growing. As a result of this damage he has cerebral palsy affecting all 4 limbs, hearing loss in his left ear, scarring on his retinas.

He developed oral aversion around 12 months and ended up having a gastrostomy and was tube fed whilst also drinking high calorie milk from a bottle. Over the last 18 months he has gone from eating nothing to pretty much eating everything and has finally started gaining weight. He can't walk but has learned to crawl so he can get where he wants to go but he cannot talk which makes communication extremely frustrating.

Elliott goes to an amazing school where all the staff do everything they can to help the children grow to their full potential. Elliott doesn't sleep which can be very challenging to say the least.

In December 2013 Elliott had his first seizure and we nearly lost him. Since then we have had several blue light trips to a&e, medication is helping but we found out just before Christmas that he is having continuous seizures when he is asleep which is the cause of his lack of sleep.

In spite of everything he goes through Elliott is a very happy giggly little boy and doesn't let anything get him down for long. He is a very determined little boy who loves snuggles and has the most infectious laugh I've ever heard.