Boy’s amazing hospital journey . . . from The Falklands to Shropshire

Meet Kailand Ford the five-year-old boy with cerebral palsy who makes 15,000-mile round trips from the Falklands to receive specialist treatment at Shropshires orthopaedic hospital.

Kailand was referred to the Orthotic and Locomotor Assessment Unit (ORLAU) at Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital following initial assessment in Oxford in 2012.

His mum Karen Armstrong-Ford, who is originally from Berkshire, decided to bring her son to Shropshire after reading on the internet about treatments offered at Oswestry.

Since 2012 Kailand has made five trips to the orthopaedic hospital with his mum, dad Paul Ford, who is a Falkland Islander, and older sister Kia, seven.

Within a year of his birth, Kailand was diagnosed with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, which meant that regular medical trips back to the UK would be inevitable.

He receives physiotherapy treatment at the hospital and regular checks are made by staff to monitor progress.

When residents of the Falklands require non-urgent, more complex surgical procedures and treatments than the islands small hospital can provide, they are flown depending on need to either to Chile or to RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, via military aircraft, to attend a British hospital.

Mrs Armstrong-Ford said: While we thought the care at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford was amazing, the treatment we have had at Oswestry is out of this world.

The staff here are fantastic very knowledgeable, kind and considerate, planning our three appointments each year to coincide with school holidays to avoid too much disruption for Kailand or for me.

The long haul flight means the trip is at least 28 hours each way, with just one stop at Ascension Island in the middle of the South Atlantic. We do physiotherapy exercises on the plane to stop Kailands joints from becoming too stiff on the journey.

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Boy's amazing hospital journey . . . from The Falklands to Shropshire