WHEN he was very young, William Bayley was known as 'Wobbly William'.

He was late to crawl and walk and had a habit of falling over a lot and when he started school there were regular accident forms for his parents to fill out.

A congenital heart defect which he was born with had kept everyone busy for the first year or so of his life and it wasn’t until after he had his initial surgery that his parents, William Bayley and Alison Findlay, started to think there might be something else wrong.

Alison said: "He was clearly struggling with fine motor skills as well and was finding writing a massive challenge and was starting to get quite disheartened.

"It was at this point that a teacher suggested he might have dyspraxia and when we looked into it, everything seemed to make sense. He had the usual NHS assessments and some basic physio and occupational therapy input but that was all that was available.

"We felt totally lost, desperate to help our son who was clearly struggling, but didn’t know what to do next."

Despite dad working in hospital healthcare and mum being a GP, the couple are just ‘normal parents’ who want to help their child in any way possible.

It was then that they heard about Megan Baker House and referred William. He was assessed and has attended a weekly group there since the beginning of this school year.

And the difference the Leominster-based charity has made to his life has been phenomenal.

Alison said: "I have to admit that both school and us, as parents, were initially a bit sceptical about what it might do for him but the results speak for themselves already.

"He is getting regular input, monitoring, support and being gently challenged to improve in the things he finds most difficult.

"Not only have we noticed a massive difference in his fine and gross motor skills, school have commented on how he has made progress in many areas of his education.

"Not only is he better at sitting and concentrating and has better coordination and balance, his school work has improved as a result.

"The other really important thing that we have noticed is that William no longer feels ‘different’ and no longer says ‘I can’t do that’ before he has even tried. His confidence has improved hugely and he is becoming so much more independent in all aspects of his day to day life."

With your support, we hope to raise £35,000 so that 10 children can receive life-changing conductive education at Megan Baker House for one year through our Project Chrysalis campaign.

To donate:

- Visit justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/meganbakerhouse/projectchrysalis

- Send a cheque to Megan Baker House, Moreton Eye, Leominster, HR6 0DP

- Call the charity on 01568 616179 to arrange a BACS transfer