Caravan youngster's dream comes true after appeal
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Caravan transformation causes big smiles for tourer fanatic Lewis, following generous donation
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Stockport schoolboy Lewis Barkworth, aged 10, has struggled with a number of illnesses all his life. However, that hasn't stopped him developing an infectiously happy personality and a passion for all things caravanning.
Now, following a generous donation thanks to an online plea, Lewis has got his very own sensory chill out space in the form of a rejuvenated and restored caravan on his drive at home.
Caravan magazine talked to Lewis' mum Jan about the story and transformation...
Tell us a little bit about Lewis
"Lewis is 10 years old and a twin. He has a rare chromosome disorder – so rare it doesn't have a name, just numbers: 16p11.2 duplication."This has caused Lewis to have complex needs and a lot of diagnoses including: global developmental delay (developmentally, he’s 5-6yrs), speech and language disorder, growth hormone deficiency (he has nightly injections to help him grow), hypermobility syndrome (he has a wheelchair for when walking a distance is required or for when he has 'pain' days), paralysis of left vocal chord, abnormalities of the brain, moderate learning difficulties and asthma.
"Even though he has so many issues, he's a happy little boy who loves being centre of attention. Anyone who meets Lewis falls in love with him and never forgets him."
Crazy about caravans
"He became obsessed with caravans after we started taking the children on holiday to various caravan sites around Wales. He would love staying in caravan and looking around ones for sale; it just became a obsession for him that he wanted to live in a caravan on my drive so he was near me."Then a friend signed him up for caravan brochures to look at, which he loved. He sits for hours staring at the diagrams and pictures of caravans in the brochures and, when we go out, he loves looking at all the caravans and motorhomes that we pass.
"He’s also been known to run up to caravans on-site when out and about and look through windows before we can stop him. Thankfully he's not caused any embarrassment by doing that… Yet!"
Coming up with the idea
"One evening after a day of non-stop chatter from Lewis about caravans and, after he asked me to buy him a £48,000 tourer, I had a brainwave to do a blog post about Lewis and his passion, asking if anybody had a old caravan I could re-vamp into a sensory/chill out room for him."I asked my friends on Facebook and Twitter to share my blog link in the hope someone saw it and had a van that they had no use for. I didn't expect any response, if I'm honest. I was browsing eBay to look for something we could revamp that was affordable to us when I was gobsmacked!
"We were offered a caravan and I arranged to take Lewis to view it, saying that we were going to look around a friend of a friend’s caravan as a treat, which he was excited about.
"When we got there he had good look around it and the lady owner, Val, and her hubby then asked if Lewis would like to take it home. He said yes but thought they were joking at first. Then, when he realised they weren’t, he was very excited and happy!"
Let the transformation begin
"Once we got caravan home I stood inside it with a very excited Lewis and thought: “Okay, what have I got myself into?”"He wanted me to sort it out there and then, so I knew I needed to do it fast and got to work the next day. It took me nine days in total, with help from various friends, and we created Lewis’ sensory, chill out, arts and craft space in his own caravan.
"Lewis loves his caravan he tells everybody about. We've found our other children also love going in there and spending time doing arts/crafts with Lewis and it's helping to strengthen their bond too."
What's the best thing about all of this?
"The best thing about it all is making Lewis' dream come true. He deserves it and seeing the smile and look of pride on his face whenever he’s in the caravan (which is all the time) makes all the hard work worthwhile. We can’t thank Val enough for her kindness in helping to make his dream happen."When Lewis is asked what's the best thing about his caravan his reply is 'everything' he loves every single bit of it."
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