When Shane started nursery I began to walk him to and from school to get him some independence from his buggy.
When I thought he was ready I started leaving the buggy at home and made him take my hand. For ages he kept asking for a carry and I kept refusing trying to stop him being lazy and forced him to walk.
He would throw tantrums and refuse to move until I carried him the rest of the way. When he found his voice better he started to complain of sore legs but I thought he was just playing me so he would get his own way because he was consistent around the same distance.
After a couple of months I got a bit concerned so I took him to the doctors who referred him to a ligament specialist and a rheumatologist.
After seeing him they then diagnosed Shane with joint hypermobility, suffering from chronic bilateral knee pain. After seeing Shane a few times we were given exercises and told to encourage Shane to up his sporting activity to strengthen his muscles around his bones to do the job his ligaments were struggling to do.
Trying to get a 3 year old to participate in sports is a nightmare! Shane was no where near emotionally ready. But our local club Rutherford AFC suggested giving him a try. After a few weeks his coach admitted he wasn’t ready but still allowed him to come along and run around and in time Shane slowly started joining in and fell in love with football.
He “had to have” an NUFC season ticket, all the footy strips under the sun, new shiny boots when his other new ones got dirty. He became obsessed. From morning until night he tried to kick a ball. He just didn’t have the strength. When his coach left the soccer tots programme and his new coach took over he lost it a bit but because he just loved football he stuck in and quickly found an unbelievable bond with his coach.
All he wanted from him was his praise and Shane worked hard to get it. In a year he went from a little boy who couldn’t walk far to literally running the ¼ mile to school when he was late. We went back to see his consultant who was very happy with his progress and confirmed he still had a large flexibility gauge but his muscles were growing well and to keep his football up as a form of treatment. So he did more.
Any chance he got to play or train he would. When the winter break came and Shane didn’t have much football his pains came back mildly after a few weeks. So Shane forced himself to use every spare minute he had around school (even using break times) to kick the ball about. He started entering goalie competitions on a weekend just to give him the extra time on the pitch and then the pain went away.
We returned in January this year to see his consultant. We told them how his pains had come back and how Shane had pushed himself to do more footy and “fixed” the problem. It was explained to us that it was unlikely Shane would outgrow his joint hypermobility anytime soon if at all but she was thrilled to discharge him from the clinic as his own form of treatment was doing the trick and there isn’t anything better she could do to help him.
Shane turns 7 next month and is developing massively under his new coach and team at Gateshead FC. He’s winning trophies, getting man of the match and he is thriving. He’s gone from being an unhappy, self-conscious little boy who couldn’t walk to school to a strong, confident, developing player and it’s all thanks to grassroots football. It gave him his life back!
Shane wins the best save award in March at Keeper combat.
