I’m Dan and I have two sons. My youngest son Luca is five years old and has MPS II Hunter syndrome (neurological variant). Luca was diagnosed in April 2019. He attends a special needs school where he is thriving. He has ERT once a week and is awaiting carpal tunnel surgery.
The Just4Men workshop was the first online session of its’ kind that I have been aware of, so I decided to give it a try. I’m glad that I attended the workshop where there was an open and honest discussion with other male parents. I have struggled since we received Luca’s diagnosis and it has been hard to build a support network during the pandemic.
I was able to talk about my situation and listen to others which made me realise that I am not alone. It was an opportunity to express how I feel and from listening to other members of the group, their experiences resonated with me. It helped me consider ways to deal with the daily challenges. Being a typical man, I am not used to saying how I feel, but I was able to ‘get things off my chest’ in this environment. The workshop was insightful and a big help for me going forward.
It is vitally important that there are opportunities like these to be able to talk about feelings and develop coping strategies to be able to get on with life. The MPS Society needs to be able to continue to offer workshops, mindfulness and counselling to support the mental health and wellbeing of families. In particular, men may not be good at conveying their emotions so support to enable this is invaluable.
Please donate to the Big Give Christmas Challenge to help the MPS Society raise £15,000 to fund mental health and wellbeing support for families in 2022. Donations open from 12pm on Tuesday 30th November to 12pm on Tuesday 7th December. Please click here to donate between these dates.
