I first saw the ad for the Round the Bay's run, with the Westpac Halberg Trust, on the Cerebral Palsy website and instantly wanted to do it, with my 5 year old Cerebral Palsy son, Ross, on his trike. After thinking about it for a few days I mentioned it to my husband Al and we decided to give it a go. In December 2007 Ross started riding a Kettler trike, and initially was only able to do one rotation on his own, from the CE kindy class to the car park. It took a whole term of perseverance until he was able to go to the car, with only a few pushes to get him restarted. We borrowed the Kettler over the holidays and it gave Ross a real freedom and such independence.

Ross outgrew the Kettler trike six months later and despite trialling and buying several trikes ourselves we couldn't find one suitable, until Kris Havercort approached the CP Society to ask for funding to make a fleet of ten trikes. The rest of course is history. Ross was fortunate enough to get one of the trikes and life for him and us has changed enormously.

The decision was made to go for it, five weeks before the event and so we really didn't have a real build up to train.

It was raining the day before the race and I was worried that the weather would be dreadful and that we would need to pull out. We also did a drive of the course in the car and at that stage it dawned on me about the enormity of what I was asking Ross to do. I felt physically ill at this stage and if I could have pulled out, I would have.

On the morning of the event, the weather was fantastic. Ross was really excited and we had arranged to meet Barbara and Attila in the city near the Britomart which is where Westpac / Halberg were meeting. My brother Mark was also part of our support crew and so we had four people in the end, who were there in case we needed help, or Ross got too tired to complete the race. After saying goodbye to Al and the girls (Annaliese and Charlotte) we met our Halberg support person, got a balloon and apprehensively made our way to the start line.

Of course it was packed and the race was delayed by 15 minutes, which added to my anxieties, as Ross sometimes gets scared in large crowds and we were completely surrounded. However he took it all in his stride and just sat munching on muesli bars, until the race got underway.

When we got to Mission Bay I could really feel that Ross was tired and he said he was hungry. So we tried eating muesli bars whilst he was being pushed. Unfortunately I put too much in his mouth on one occasion and he started to choke, (poor fellow), and so we stopped whilst he had another bar and a drink and then with much reassurance, and promises of chocolate at the end, he found an amazing amount of energy and continued to the end, approx 40 minutes quicker than we had expected.

At the end we had another large group of supporters - Al ,sisters Annaliese and Charlotte, Nana, Grannie and Granpa and our wonderful neighbours Browyn and Jess. Of course there were lots of tears - mainly from me - as I couldn't believe that we had completed the course and that both Ross and I were both physically intact.

Ross of course got his choco and was more than happy. We were then surprised by the Focus 2000 team, with a wonderful congratulatory RTB's t-shirt, for Ross.

For me being able to complete the Round the Bay's with Ross, was an emotionally life changing experience, as it reaffirmed to me that anything is possible in life for us, as a family. As long as we have a good support network in place and we don't allow mental and emotional barriers to get in the way of our goals and aspirations. As I've said before, children like Ross don't read text books and so thankfully they don't know what they should and shouldn't be able to do. So with lots of encouragement and support they can do anything! Click here and go to the Focus 2000 Website and watch Ross's Video. Tracy Wadsworth

Ross Flood- Editor 55 Hillside Road Papatoetoe Auckland Phone/Fax (including answer phone) (09) 278-7106 Email Ross Flood