River’s Red Carpet raises over £1,300 towards seizure alert dog

River’s Red Carpet Reception at the Empire

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River’s Red Carpet Reception at the Empire on Sunday raised £1,385 towards a seizure alert dog for River Wardley.

The Wardley family dressed up as characters from Batman, with River as the caped crusader himself, his mum Jeni as Harley Quinn, and dad, Chris, as the Joker. Sister Roxi dressed up as Poison Ivy with younger brother Ocean as Robin.

Jeni said: “It went really well, everyone really enjoyed themselves. River was brilliant; he was doing so well. He loved the magic show and his main lead consultant came down for a few hours too.

“You could see the sparkle in River’s eyes when the princesses were leaning and waving to him: I’ll never forget it. Someone told me it was like walking into a magical wonderland which is exactly what I was going for.”

The event sold out and featured a circus skills workshop for all abilities, with sign language, a one-hour magic show from Magical Mayhem, also with sign language, meet and greet characters and lookalikes, a Disney Princesses meet and greet and dance performance by Ignite, a fancy-dress competition for children and adults, and a raffle with fantastic prizes.

Jeni continued: “Thank you so much to all our entertainers, volunteers, and businesses that contributed. I can't thank you all enough for helping to make this day possible. Thank you to everyone that attended; your support really showed on the day. It made me happy seeing lots of smiling faces.

“Thank you, Chris, for putting up with me, listening to me and supporting me in everything I do. Not to mention being my chauffeur and my constant, I couldn’t do this without you.

“Not forgetting our main man, although we had to make a quick, brief exit because of a seizure, River didn’t let that stop him and returned to the party. We love you so much River, thank you for being so brave. We will continue to do all we can for you because you’re simply our inspiration to never give up hope.”

After the overwhelming success from the day, Jeni is planning similar events, although she admits it does take a lot of time and hard work.

Seven-year-old River, from Littleborough, is one of only nine people in the world, and the only child in the UK, suffering from a life threatening genetic condition with an extremely rare mutation on his CNK SR2 gene, which causes seizures, and intellectual, attention and language deficits. He also has central and obstructive sleep apnoea, hypermobility syndrome, Sensory Processing Disorder, autism, ADHD and uncontrolled epilepsy.

His parents believe a specially trained therapy dog from Autism Life Dogs will massively improve both River’s quality of life and aid his nine-year old sister, Roxi-Blue, who also has autism and sensory issues.

A ‘Forever Friend’ dog from the charity costs £6,500, requiring a deposit of £1,000.

The family now have enough money to lay down a deposit for a dog and almost enough to pay the first instalment in full.

However, the mother-of-three has run into further difficulties and has been told they are better off with a seizure alert dog first, then following with an autism programme from Autism Life Dogs afterwards.

Advised to contact both Medical Detect Dogs and Support Dogs UK, Jeni and River are looking at a three to four year waiting list before they could be placed with a dog, a time frame which Jeni says is too long.

Jeni added: “You can’t even apply because the waiting list is so long. I need some help and advice about how to get the seizure alert dog; no-one is really getting back to me. It is a possibility to get an autism dog first and then have training for seizures, but that’s another £4,500 pounds [on top of the £6,500] for training.“

To donate, visit:

https://www.gofundme.com/give-river-a-better-quality-life