Last night the hubby and I attended a charity auction at Bishopswood House (a stately home and garden used for weddings and other big functions, up near mum's house at the Dam Barn).
The event was held in honour of Joshua Freeman, a little boy who is friends with Tony (my 8 year old brother in law). Josh has been in a wheelchair all his life, and until now had no chance of being able to walk again.
Whenever Josh and his brother Johnny(who has no physical impairments and for all intents and purposes is a very healthy active 7 year old boy) come over to play with Tony it's always the same old story.....The boys start off in the livingroom, Josh's mother Luda sits Josh on the couch to play with the other boys, playing on video games or watching TV. But then Tony and Johnny soon get bored ad decide to go run off and play outside, leaving Johnny to play or watch Tv by himself.
But now an opportunity arose for Josh. There is an operation he can get in America which will enable him to walk. Albiet, he'll start on crutches after the operation(after not walking for 8 year of his life, walking will obviously not come natural after regaining feeling in his legs...he'll have to learn how to walk, and build up strength in his legs), but eventually he will be able to walk.
The only thing is that he has to raise upwards of 40,000 pounds to get it. So, his family and friends have been putting out charity boxes at local establishments, and last night they held an auction. There was about 70-80 items donated to be auctioned off(everything from a service--ironing, to handmade wooden candlesticks, to signed shirts and photos of famous people, to meals out at local pubs and restaraunts, to hired rental car for a weekend, to tickets to see shows in London.....lots of things were donated, and a few more (20 odd) were donated to be raffled off as well.
The auction was not done very well, but Rob and I bid(with our friends Lyndsy and Greg) and managed to get 4 tickets to this Ice Age LIVE show in Cardiff. We(just Rob and I) won in the raffle a meal for two at The Mill Race(where we took my mum and dad, and alice for dinner one night while mum and dad were visiting).
There was also food, champagne, a lot of chit chat, a disco(dance party) at the end (of which only the children ages 12 and under atteded.....seriously, even the DJ was 12). The best part of the whole evening though, was Josh's Dad standing up and saying a few words about how much this means to them and thanks for all the time and effort people give just to help out Josh....and then Josh wanted to say something...and all he said was a simple "thank you for coming".
I don't think I've ever seen that little boy smile so much in one day....and when his dad said in his speech "this will change Josh's life forever", it was the biggest smile I have ever seen on Josh's face.
