Help us to bring Mig home say loving parents

It has been a year since the Billinge 29-year-old was seriously injured following a buggy accident while he was working in Perth, Western Australia, leaving him severely brain damaged.

Mark, known to his friends as Mig, is currently being cared for in a specialist unit at a care home in Liverpool but his parents, Julie and Malcolm, are hoping they will one day be able to bring him back to their School Brow home.

But it is still not known how much Mark will recover or whether he will ever walk and talk again.

As a result, Julie and Malcolm know they will have to extend and adapt their home to make it suitable for him

Julie said: “It won’t happen for at least 12 to 14 months but when he does we think we will need an extension on the back and a hoist. The guys are trying to raise money for us again.

“He is making very small progress, he is more aware of his surroundings and he is smiling a lot more.

“Before he was only occasionally smiling and now he smiles more often. He gives us hugs now, we’ve been to see him today and he gave us a big hug, me and his dad.”

Mark’s family and friends are no strangers to fund-raising after they raised £50,000 to bring him home from Australia, where he was nearing the end of a year-long trip when tragedy struck on November 3.

“We know he is always going to be physically and mentally disabled but we don’t know how much he will come on in the next year, we won’t know for another year,” Julie added.

“We know he is not going to be anything like he was but apart from that we don’t know. I don’t want to be negative but it is not looking likely after one year that he will walk and talk again.

“He can’t sit up on his own. But we hope he will be able to communicate his needs and preferences at some point so we can ask him whether he wants the TV or radio on and he can let us know what her would prefer.

“I think that is the best we can hope for but maybe I am being pessimistic. We think it will be best for him to be home with his family and so his friends can come and visit him.”

A winter wonderland ball is being held to raise money on Novemeber 19 at 7.30pm at St.Marys Labour Club in Billinge. Organiser and Mark’s friend Vikki Brown said: “This event will help to Raise more money for Mig’s future needs, in the next 12-18 months.

“We don’t know as of yet what adaptations, adjustments and equipment Mig may need but when the time comes we want the funding side of things to go as smoothly for Mig and his family.”