Skelmanthorpe nine-year-old raises cash for communication charity

A NINE-YEAR-OLD cerebral palsy sufferer embarked on a challenge to raise money for the charities who have helped him develop his speech.

Finn Haley-Hughes decided to do a seven-mile walk around four villages to raise money for two speech and communication charities.

Mum Helen Haley went with him on the walk along with his speech therapist Lizzie Davies.

Helen said: “He is a wonderful little boy and decided that he wanted to do something to raise money for the two charities.

“He suffers from mild cerebral palsy, which has affected his facial muscles. This has had an affect on Finn’s speech.

“I asked if he wanted to do something for cerebral palsy, he said no, he would prefer to do it for I-can and The British Stammering Association.

“Stammering is a problem on top of his speech, so he has been tackling them both individually and working really, really hard.

“We can communicate with each other either through writing things down or by asking him to say over again a couple of times.

“When he was learning to talk, we used sign language.

“The development and progression he has made is down to his weekly visits with Lizzie and from the support of charities like I-can and the BSA.

“Finn is incredible, he just gets on with it and the more he progresses the greater his confidence is.”

Finn, who has a love of fast cars, did the walk in November and went through Skelmanthorpe, Emley, Kirkburton and Shelley.

The Skelmanthorpe First and Nursery pupil managed to raise £369 in sponsorship and was delighted to hand it over to the charities.

Helen, who works at Armitage’s Garden Centre in Shelley, said: “One of the charities said that he was one of the youngest people to ever raise money for them.

“We were given T-shirts by I-can and we wore them on the walk. As we were walking, we passed a farm with kittens for sale at £20. The farmer saw the T-shirts and asked what we were doing, so we explained.

“Finn had been wanting a kitten for ages and the farmer said that he would like to give him one as part of his donation. So we have also walked away with little Garfield, a small white and ginger kitten.

“We would like to thank everyone that supported us and also Lizzie his speech therapist, who has really worked hard with him.

“She has been amazing.”