He drew his inspiration from watching his twin brother Chris running and jumping and playing. And he was determined to do the same – so much so that earlier this year he managed to participate in a walk to the top of Mount Kosciuszko.
“Right from the beginning, Nicholas was always ready to try anything that would get him on his feet,” says his mother, Suzie. “He never let a setback stand in his way or get him down. If he fell down, which he often did, he’d bounce back up and try again. He has a remarkable spark of resilience that continues to astound us.
“He really is a very determined young man,” says Suzie. “He is always willing to have a go. And he’s always been like that, right from when he was a little boy and just trying to stand. We would count the seconds that he could stand on his own two feet but eventually he began to take short, shaky steps. And that was the beginning.”
As such, and with much practice at home in Sydney’s north with the help of his parents and brother, Nicholas was able to leave his wheelchair behind for short periods, beginning with small steps around the home at first but then graduating to short walks across the back lawn.
Nicholas has a type of cerebral palsy that affects the tone of his muscles leaving them, in Suzie’s own description, as “floppy”.
“Sometimes you see children who have cerebral palsy and they are very stiff and rigid but Nicholas is much more like a rag doll and it also affects his balance,” she says. “We had no idea he would even walk independently at all.”
In the beginning, he walked with a frame and used the strength in his upper arms to support him but then “by watching his brother and with occupational therapy and physiotherapy, he started to take steps. And then one day he walked down the driveway at home and we were like, what? It was amazing.
“Now, he manages to walk without that frame, which is even more extraordinary. There are times when he stumbles because of his balance but he still does it on his own.”
But that makes his achievement on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko all the more inspiring. He was part of the inaugural Krazy Kosci Klimb, in which a group of kids with cerebral palsy trekked (and/or wheeled) to the top of Australia’s highest peak.
Nicholas also raised an amazing $27,000 for cerebral palsy research during his Krazy Kosci Klimb adventure. The money will help other kids follow their dreams, and perhaps even climb mountains someday, too.
“He still has no fear,” says Suzie. “It’s all still there in terms of his attitude and wanting to try things. That’s him in a nutshell, really.”
Nicholas is now making the most of his hard-earned walking abilities and is about to embark on STEPtember – 10,000 steps a day for the month of September to raise money for the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.
