Local mom encourages public to support telethon

Lynn Brumsey says she knew that something wasn't right with her young son, Adrian.

Ms. Brumsey was on maternity leave at the time, after the birth of her second son, Ameron. She noticed one-year-old Adrian would get upset if she put him on the floor on his belly. Unreasonably upset. She also noticed he would get aggravated and had a hard time communicating his wants to her.

Other moms told her to wait, that it would change. But she wrote down each thing she noticed in her son that she knew to be different from other children.

Eventually her pediatrician agreed with what Ms. Brumsey figured all along. Adrian was autistic.

This was when the trips to the Janeway began. So far there have been six - in the last ten months. Even for a working family, like that of Lynn and her partner Harold, bills mount up.

Ms. Brumsey says the experience has been made easier with the help of the Bay St. George Sick Children's Foundation, the annual fundraising of which will be held this Saturday in Stephenville.

"If you have to try and dig up $1,000 out of the blue trying to get them in there, it's not easy," says Ms. Brumsey. "You don't want to turn them down and say no, because you want the treatment for your child."

Since Adrian's diagnosis, the Sick Children's Foundation has been able to assist Lynn and Harold with bringing their son to St. John's for treatment several of the six times he has been required to be there.

Along with treatment at the Janeway, Adrian sees a physiotherapist and occupational therapist in Corner Brook. He has optomitrist appointments for an eye condition that is being treated. All told, she says he has least three appointments a week.

Ms. Brumsey has been on leave from her job since Adrian's diagnosis, which she says has been difficult financially, but beneficial from her son's health point of view.

"I've started seeing improvements in him by playing with him," she says. "You have to go to whatever he is interested in, not the other way around."

Adrian will have to visit the Janeway many more times as he grows. Ms. Brumsey says while this is stressful enough, knowing that the sick children's foundation is there to help if needed, is one less worry.

"Between the everyday stress when it comes to bills and medical problems and then trying to keep your children happy ...it's one less thing you have to worry about when they call you to get this treatment or this test done. You don't have to worry about how you'll get there or where you will stay."

Marsha MacInnis, president of the Sick Children's

Foundation says its kids like Adrian and moms like Lynn that really benefit from the foundation and all it can offer. It's a service the foundation hopes to be able to continue to offer.

Lynn and her family will be watching the telethon on Cable Channel 9 this Saturday, and hope you will be too.

"You don't know what's going to happen in the future, to one day or the next, and if there's a foundation like the Sick Children's Foundation, at least there's that secure feeling. They're there to help and do what they can."

reporter@thegeorgian.ca