Northampton family appeals for help as mystery illness leaves young son unable to eat, talk or walk

A Northampton family is turning to the community for help as their young son has been left needing full-time care in just four months due to a mystery illness.

Beau Cameron was a normal 10-year-old boy until he started to suffer chest pains in December, with him unable to eat, talk or walk independently by March, but doctors have little idea why.

His parents, Samantha and Richard, from Grange Park, want to raise £4,500 to buy a stair climber so they do not have to carry him as well as any other equipment he needs.

Any extra money will be spent on a family trip to stay at Legoland, which Beau always wanted to do, once he is feeling better.

Samantha, 44, said: "For a child who was an average 10-year-old boy, he loved having fun, running around and going fishing and doing everything 10-year-old boys do.

"But now he sits in a hospital bed watching TV, he doesn't want to do anything - it's shocking and it's very, very difficult."

Doctors initially thought Beau's chest pains were down to reflux but they continued and he was rushed to hospital thinking it was appendicitis but it was not.

Samantha and Richard, 47, were then told it could be costochondritis, an inflammation of the cartilage that joins the ribs to the breastbone, which he got treatment for.

In February, Beau started vomiting blood so he went back to hospital with clinicians thinking it could be an ulcer, but again it was not.

The next month he stopped talking and eating, losing a stone in a week, and spent another 10 days in hospital, before he was referred to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Beau is still waiting to be seen by the London children's hospital so Samantha is now his full-time carer: washing him, taking him to the toilet, brushing his teeth and feeding him through a tube.

"It's definitely challenging, we have got five children in total, one's 17, one's 20 and one's 21 so they have more of an understanding of it, they are worried but they can process it," she said.

"But his younger sister is nine and they are like twins, so kids always fight but they never argue, they are best mates but she has lost her brother, she asks when she's going to get Beau back but we just don't know.

"It's quite heart-breaking as she says she's forgotten what he sounds like and I have too as he's not spoken for two months - you'd never think you could forget what your child sounds like."

The NHS has provided Beau with a wheelchair and psychologists but not a stairlift or climber so his parents do not have to carry him.

So they have started a fundraising page on GoFundMe to eventually buy what they need to be more comfortable until he gets better, which Sam is determined to do.

"We've been told it could be six months in Great Ormond Street before he improves but I don't care, as long as I come out with my boy - even if it takes a year," she said.

"We've tried everything to fix him, we've tried alternative medicines and holistic treatments but they've not worked so until he can see a specialist we've come to the conclusion we need to get on with family life as best we can."

Sam said they have been overwhelmed with the generosity of friends, family members and strangers so far, with £3,105 raised online already.

Any extra funds will go towards other things they might need as well as respite care and the ultimate goal of a weekend at Legoland, as Beau used to love playing with Lego.

To donate, visit uk.gofundme.com/f/s4wnm-support-for-beau.