A LITTLE wheelchair-bound boy who loves visiting his local skate park is fundraising £30,000 for a hydrotherapy pool.

Stanley Senior, five, from Wimborne, who has quadriplegic dystonic cerebral palsy, is being supported by the charity, The Dorset Children's Foundation, to raise the funds for a therapy room and pool for use by him and other children with disabilities for physiotherapy.

His mum, Leela, said that Stanley has seen his friend, Jakob Sales, who also has cerebral palsy, undergo a £65,000 leg operation called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR). She says that she has had to explain to him that his own condition is too severe for the procedure and so the family must find a different way to help him.

She said: "He has now started mainstream school so any NHS-funded physiotherapy has reduced dramatically to the point where he may go months without it.

"Although Stanley has cerebral palsy like Jakob, he is very dystonic which means that his tone fluctuates wildly, hence the SDR operation wouldn't be successful.

"It is likely that if his muscles aren't kept supple, he will be looking at several remedial operations throughout his life. Currently his hips are around 30-per-cent out of their sockets due to his spasticity constantly pulling at them and we don't want this to get any worse."

She said that Stanley loves nothing more than going along the ramps of Ferndown Skatepark and hopes to one day follow the career success of American wheelchair athlete, Aaron Fotheringham, who was born with spina bifida.

"Once I asked Stanley what he wants to do in the future and rather than saying he wants to be a fireman or a doctor, he replied that he wanted to do a backflip in his wheelchair.

"If he sees any kind of ramp or bump in the pavement as we are walking along, he wants to go over it in Wilbur, which is what he calls his wheelchair."

Leela said that Stanley is supported in his fundraising efforts by his twin sister, Willow and dad, Anthony, with the family having arranged a host of events already which have put £9,000 in the total so far.

Patsy Hallmey from The Dorset Children's Foundation said that estate agency firm, Avenue Estates, have vowed to donate £100 from every property sale to Stanley's fundraising until the end of the year.

For more information, go to Justgiving.com/StanleysHydroHouse