Brenton came into our lives 26 years ago, in 1997, after a relatively normal pregnancy.
Although the doctors never mentioned anything at birth, we could feel something wasn’t quite right. Brenton had deformed little fingers, long eye lashes, webbed toes, a mono brow, up turned nose, he was very hairy and required tube feeding due to his small size and birth weight.
We took Brenton home and started our journey of discovery. Brenton wasn’t meeting expected milestones and our Pediatrician acknowledged that something wasn’t right.
We went through numerous specialist visits, visits to Neurologists,
etc. We had blood and chromosome tests and finally when Brenton was 9 months old, we were referred to see a Geneticist. The Geneticist
admitted that our pediatrician suggested she should investigate a Syndrome that one of his patients was born with 20 years prior.
We were given the usual worst case scenario that he will probably won’t walk or talk, and that’s when our World imploded. We were given very little information and told to research it on the Internet.
Our Pediatrician gave us some options of early intervention providers for children with special needs. One of them was Mater Dei at Camden who we contacted and Brenton was accepted into their Early Intervention program at around 11 months of age.
Mater Dei was the best institution we could have found for Brenton’s needs and development. With the great assistance of Physiotherapists and speech therapists at Mater Dei Brenton was walking at 2 and although not perfect eventually started to speak. Brenton was at Mater Dei until he graduated from year 12 at 18 years of age.
Towards the end of year 12, Mater Dei ran an information night of after school service providers, at the time there were no providers in the immediate Camden area and a number of parents were discussing this with one provider (Interchange Australia) who said they were willing to investigate the possibility of opening a venue in the area. Sure to their word a Community Participation Day Program was set up at Camden Airport and a majority of Mater Dei graduates participated.
This was now about 8 years ago, and Brenton still loves being at Interchange. He has made many friends and loves the staff at the Narellan Campus.
Brenton attends day programs and attends a boys respite group each month with his mates. He absolutely loves it there! More recently we also often utilise Interchange Australia’s long term respite service as Brenton no longer wants to go on holidays with us because he will miss Interchange and his friends there.
Peer Support with Interchange is also another favourite on Brenton’s social calendar! He loves going on weekend outings and is constantly asking what event is coming up next.
Brenton is a member of the Narellan band “Infinite Potential” and loves participating in the annual RockCan concert and also performed live at Camden Show earlier this year. He has even become a bit of a wiz at the drums and is very eager to perform live once again at RockCan in November this year.
We are so lucky to have found Interchange and feel like part of a larger family. They have always been willing to listen to our concerns and work through any issues that arise and have always supported Brenton in his goals. Brenton is very fortunate to have 2 loving sisters, Gemma and Brianna, and a beautiful extended family and friends who love and respect him as much as we do.
Brenton loves riding his buggy and putting together Lego. He also loves riding his push bike and playing with his electronic games. He is very mechanical minded and is an absolute wiz at jigsaw puzzles. Which is no surprise that he really enjoys the upcycling program at Interchange where they work on restoring old furniture items for use in their day programs houses.
Our life has had its ups and downs as other parents with a special need child knows, but we couldn’t imagine him not being part of our lives.
We are just thankful that organisations like Interchange have been available to assist in making our life so much easier.
Garry & Kathleen Saunders
On behalf of Interchange Australia, I think we can speak for all who know Brenton, know him as a kind, bright and bubbly young man who approaches everything in life with a smile and the confidence to give it a go.
He really enjoys hands on experiences where he can be creative and keep busy and is a huge inspiration to everyone around him. A keen gardener, we can always count on Brenton to put his hand up for a bunnings visit to purchase items for our expanding garden and his upcycle furniture projects that he is working on.
Brenton can also confidently prepare healthy meals with minimal support utilising the skills leant in our Cheftastics program and more recently Brenton has started to take his fitness seriously and enjoys his gym visits at Snap Fitness in Narellan with his friends from Day Programs and loves getting out and about engaging with others in the community.
Above all this the quality Brenton brings to the Day Programs vibe with his smile, outgoing personality and loyal friendship, make Brenton an invaluable member of our Narellan group and we look forward to many, many more years of celebrating our time with Brenton!
