Reaching for the Moon
I have written on this blog before about my cousin Colin and his wife Cath's daughter, Helaina Stone, who was one of the Woman's Own Children of Courage last year.
She is fourteen and suffers from Costello Syndrome, which is a very rare genetic syndrome causing multiple medical complications including a tendency to cancer, which Helaina has had twice.
Granada Television made an excellent documentary about her recently, which so far has only been screened in the Manchester region: here's a picture of her watching it on a dvd at our house on Sunday:
And here she is in the documentary in the process of giving one of her renowned ear-to-ear smiles:
Everything that's every been written about a so-called "handicapped" child being an inspiration to others is true of Helaina, who has come through numerous operations and retains her sunny personality and wicked sense of humour.
Her parents have never accepted any doctor's insistence on her limitations "she'll never walk" "she'll never talk" etc - - well, she does both. It's hard to tell how well she can read, but she spent about three hours at our house looking at books, very carefully.
Anyway, it was lovely to see Helaina and her family. She's involved with the Caudwell Children's charity and, through them, has met a lot of celebrities.
I'm not generally impressed with the idea of celebrity in itself, but since I've always been interested in space travel, I was delighted to hear that one of the people she's met is Buzz Aldrin. And Helaina, Colin and Cath all said he was lovely.
BUZZ ALDRIN! I'm related to someone who's met Buzz Aldrin who's been to the moon!
(By the way, do you know what Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name was? Yes, it was Moon.)
Oh go on then, let's play the music.
She is fourteen and suffers from Costello Syndrome, which is a very rare genetic syndrome causing multiple medical complications including a tendency to cancer, which Helaina has had twice.
Granada Television made an excellent documentary about her recently, which so far has only been screened in the Manchester region: here's a picture of her watching it on a dvd at our house on Sunday:
And here she is in the documentary in the process of giving one of her renowned ear-to-ear smiles:
Everything that's every been written about a so-called "handicapped" child being an inspiration to others is true of Helaina, who has come through numerous operations and retains her sunny personality and wicked sense of humour.Her parents have never accepted any doctor's insistence on her limitations "she'll never walk" "she'll never talk" etc - - well, she does both. It's hard to tell how well she can read, but she spent about three hours at our house looking at books, very carefully.
Anyway, it was lovely to see Helaina and her family. She's involved with the Caudwell Children's charity and, through them, has met a lot of celebrities.
I'm not generally impressed with the idea of celebrity in itself, but since I've always been interested in space travel, I was delighted to hear that one of the people she's met is Buzz Aldrin. And Helaina, Colin and Cath all said he was lovely.
BUZZ ALDRIN! I'm related to someone who's met Buzz Aldrin who's been to the moon!
(By the way, do you know what Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name was? Yes, it was Moon.)
Oh go on then, let's play the music.
posted by Daphne at 10:57 pm
4 Comments:
What a beautiful name.
What a beautiful child.
Thank you for sharing this post with us.
she looks great, i often think about how hard it must be for people with disabilities to be taken as normal by the rest of the world, allowed to fit in allowed to have a sense of humour, intelligence, and it starts with the acceptence of the family, whih this young lady has in abundance.
Thank you for the lovely blog post.
And here is a picture of Helaina and Buzz
http://tiny-url.org/POje7H
Unfortunatly it was late in the evening and Helaina was sleepy when the picture was taken.
Col
I don't watch these documentaries very often but when I do, I find the stories awe-inspiring and vow not to complain so much. Of course, that wears off ... but I remember the kids. There was one recently about a little girl of about four years old who had to have half her brain removed and had to learn to use the other side to take over motor functions. She was amazing. Of course, she didn't like it, but she got on with it and made incredible progress.
Helaina sounds like a wonderful young woman. I'm so glad she got to meet one of her heroes! How funny that his mother's maiden name was 'Moon'!
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