Jon shares his experiences as a parent
carer, to his son Jordi who has Cerebral Palsy; their love for storytelling,
music and football.
Last Friday
Cardiff City Foundation, which organises activities in the community, including
football sessions for disabled children, held a 10 year anniversary event. The compere was a twelve year old boy with
cerebral palsy. His performance brought the house down: next day he was in the
directors’ box at the City Stadium. I
wasn’t in the least surprised: the boy in question was my son, Jordi.
I was 52 years
old and a well-established children’s author when my partner and I had our
first child. It soon became evident that he couldn’t sit up like the other
kids, but it wasn’t till he was nearly two that he was diagnosed with cerebral
palsy. At first it was a terrible blow to us, but eventually Jordi did crawl,
then walk (albeit awkwardly). His movement problems did not make him any less
open, enthusiastic or affectionate, and the warmth of his personality melted
hearts everywhere.
I really do
believe that those movement problems had a positive effect on Jordi. Unable to
run around with the other kids, he read avidly, and it soon became apparent
that his literary abilities were exceptional. At the age of six he won a
national poetry competition and began dictating stories which showed not only
great originality but also a highly developed sense of how to tell a tale. We
put these stories on his website. www.jordiblake.co.uk, which now features extracts from his latest
work in progress, a novel of over twenty thousand words.
These days Jordi
usually has three or four books on the go at any one time. He first came to
understand his condition through my story collection “Oshie”, about a boy with cerebral
palsy who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of football.
In 2017 I was
shortlisted for the Laugh Out Loud awards for Thimble Monkey Superstar, about
Jams Cogan, another boy with CP, and the lovable anarchic monkey who comes to
live with him. I tried hard to write a chapter of Thimble a day, knowing that
Jordi would be rushing home from school eager to read it. He is the best
possible audience, not only because he laughs so much, but also because he gets
so involved in the story and comes up with dozens of ideas. He even sang the
theme tune which we put up on his YouTube channel.
Thimble Monkey
Superstar aims to entertain, and Jams’s disability is just a fact of life
rather than the subject of the book; he uses a walker but is not defined by it.
The response to the book has been fantastic, but then most people tend to
respond to Jordi in a very positive way.
Last summer
Jordi had a major operation to severe and reset both femurs. It was his hardest test yet but he came
through it with flying colours. I’ve
always encouraged him to turn his disadvantage into an advantage, and it is
absolutely his aim to become a tribune for disabled people through his
extraordinary eloquence. He will
undoubtedly succeed.
To read Jordi’s extracts from his latest
work in progress and a novel of over twenty thousand words, please visit his website.
Also visit Jon’s website
where you can find out more about his work.
Can you relate to Jon’s story? Please
share your experiences with us.
