A MAPPLEWELL youngster was a special guest at the local tractor run at the weekend to raise money for charity - and his family are still taking part in their own mammoth fundraising mission after hitting another huge milestone.
Louie George Wood was born prematurely at 28 weeks, weighing less than 2lbs, and then suffered a bleed on the brain, chronic lung disease, suspected sepsis, anaemia and stomach issues.
The seven-year-old has quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy, periventricular leukomalacia a type of brain injury in which cysts form on the brain and global developmental delay.
Despite Louie’s illness, he’s still managed to live life to the fullest - even appearing in children’s books and on TV in the past few years.
On Sunday, he was one of the special guests at the Priory Rose Vintage Group Tractor Run - which came through Darton - to raise money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.
His mum, Jodie Morgan, said: “We’d not heard about the event until the morning it was going to take place.
“We saw The Talbot Inn had posted it on Facebook and Louie is obsessed with tractors so we decided to go down.
“We managed to watch the first part from the road and then as it went on a tractor stopped and asked us to get on.
“It made Louie’s day completely.
“It was great to see his smiling face and he kept asking for ‘more, more, more’.”
Jodie and the family have been fundraising themselves for a number of years - and their mission isn’t over yet as they’re still trying to make adaptations for their home to make Louie’s life easier.
They’ve just hit £145,000 and are hoping to raise even more as the year continues - but Jodie admitted the last year has been hard.
“We’ve not been able to hold any events ourselves for the last year so we have been struggling in fundraising in that respect,” she added.
“But we have just hit £145,000 even though donations are now slower so it is going well.
“We want to make house adaptations for Louie at our home so that’s what we’re fundraising for at the moment.
“The community are still raising money for him and we’re happy with where we’re at.”
To follow the youngster’s story and to donate to the cause, visit Louie’s Pace - A Warrior’s Tale on Facebook.
