Can you help 10-year-old Samuel leave hospital so he can be given a puppy at home on Christmas Day?
Samuel Thorne, 10, has been in the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital since last November. Sam will be on a ventilator for the rest of his life. Photographed with his family; father Craig, mother Jane and sister Amelia, 17, on the intensive care ward. Photo: Claudia Baxter Samuel Thorne: Young boy embarks on his long journey home THE journey started last November and it is one the close-knit Thorne family is determined to complete.
It is the journey to bring their beloved son Samuel, 10, back to their Logan home from Lady Cilento Hospital.
The avid reader, science enthusiast and once-active boy was struck down by the rare neurological condition, transverse myelitiswas, late last November and has been kept alive on a breathing machine in the South Brisbane hospital since.
Samuel can no longer walk, has no movement in his arms and can’t swallow. The joy of eating is a memory. He is fed through a tube into his stomach.
And while he comes to terms with the realisation that his life has changed forever, what Samuel has his focus set on is the chance to return to the home he shares with his parents Craig and Jane and his big sister Amelia. And he wants to do that by Christmas so he can get a much-hoped for puppy.
But the challenge to do that will not be easy.
Samuel Thorne, 10, has been in the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital since last November. Sam will be on a ventilator for the rest of his life. Photo: Claudia Baxter Jane said the family needs to raise $350,000 to help bring Samuel home, with the money needed to revamp the Thorne family home to cater for the wheelchair-bound Samuel and a fulltime carer.
The Springwood Road State School community, where Samuel would have started Year 5 this year, is rallying.
“The Springwood Road State School community is fundraising to support a campaign for Samuel over the next six month period,’’ principal Alisha Le Brese said.
Springwood State High School — where Samuel’s sister Amelia was a school captain in 2015 — is also helping, with students fundraising for the family.
“We started with a free dress day and whenever we fundraise during the year, we will focus on Samuel,’’ principal Julie Ann McCullough said.
But help from Logan’s business and wider community is desperately needed if the family’s dream to bring Samuel home by Christmas is to be realised.
Samuel’s condition is not expected to improve but the family refuses to lose hope.
The symbol of their focus is a small stone with the word “hope’’ on it; one of three given to the family by a friend when Samuel fell ill.
“A dear friend gave us three stones the day after Samuel was admitted to hospital, each with the word hope, faith and the crucifix,” Jane said.
“Craig has Hope, Amelia has Faith and I have the crucifix.”
Craig carries the stone in his shirt pocket every day.
Samuel is not intellectually affected by the condition and does Year 5 from his bed, recently completing NAPLAN.
“He’s a strong, brave kid,” transitional care nurse Charlotte Jones said.
To donate go to ameliathorne.wix.com/campaignforsamuel or go to facebook.com/