We didn't know what to do next, so my husband took us all away on a much
needed holiday. It was great for us just to relax and enjoy Ivan again. And whilst on our holiday we visited a Waterpark and
enjoyed seeing all the animals and indeed in particular the sea lions and dolphins.
My husband asked the staff if our son could possibly touch the dolphins and
they said yes, no problem. Ivan usually hides and shows no interest in any humans far less any animal, so the impact was pretty
huge, Ivan was laughing and joking and looked interested for the first time ever. The more he showed interest the more the
dolphins got excitied. It was then we both knew that there had to be something with these animals.
When we returned home, we ploughed through the internet, trying to find some
alternative therapies which may help improve our son's quality of life. Bingo!! we stumbled across an amazing place called
Island Dolphin Care, and believe me it is a special place. We contacted them and they asked us to forward a tape of Ivan for
them to view, and they said yes they would love to have Ivan over to work with.
We then contacted Real Radio and asked if they could come up with some ideas
of what wacky things my husband could do for sponsorship. It took off from there, the listeners were calling in and donating
money to help take Ivan over to the USA for therapy. We had somehow managed to fulfill his dream we were speachless!! We then
started to organise our trip and many companies, people continued to contact us offering us free car hire and flights, it
was just amazing.
When we arrived at Island Dolphin Care, our son's therapist came over and
introduced himself and Ivan immediately felt at ease and took his hand. We discovered he would be working with the lovely
Miss Sarah ( dolphin). As they explained that the first day maybe be a bit daunting for Ivan on meeting Sarah and seeing her
size, which is quite understandable. But Ivan didn't need to be asked twice if he wanted to get in the water with Sarah. We
were amazed, he was having a ball.
During the first week, we spoke to the therapist and said you know Ivan comforted
his little brother shaun who was now 4 yrs old, for the first time when he was upset. Other small things started to happen
aswell, he was more focused on things, could follow short commands, learned some signs, we just couldn't believe it. The support
we recieved as a family from all the staff over there was emense. We gained loads more information on Ivan's condition and
Deena (therapist/owner) said if i can't answer any queries or question, i will find someone who can. We just didn't want to
leave, we learned so much from the classroom sessions and then that was transferred during the time in the water. When we
said good bye the first time Deena gave me a cuddle and said "This is only the beginning for Ivan" we knew then we had to
return.
