By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
FOUR-YEAR-OLD Armani Armel can’t speak any words to his mother.
The child uses a communication book to indicate to his mum, Sherone, what he is unable to say.
When he turned one, Armani was diagnosed with quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy, a physical disability that prevents the boy from walking unaided or from forming proper words.
Earlier this month, Sherone from Endeavour Hills walked the three-kilometre leg of the Melbourne Marathon while pushing Armani in a specially adapted bike.
All proceeds they raised will go towards the Cerebral Palsy Education Centre (CPEC), where her son has been attending for more than three years.
Single mum Sherone, 23, lives with her parents Anne and Francis and dedicates her life to little Armani.
The professional ballroom dancer, who made the top 40 of this year’s So You Think You Can Dance reality series, admits her dancing was put on the backburner as she became a full-time carer after Armani was born.
“When we found out about Armani’s condition it was obviously devastating,” Sherone said.
“There’s a lot of struggles, but I have a lot of family support. It changes everything; we just work to different goals.
“It makes you appreciate all the little things in life.”
At 16 weeks pregnant Sherone had an MRI which revealed that Armani had a cyst on his brain, but doctors said they were not too concerned.
However soon after Armani was born, weighing just over four pounds, Sherone noticed he wasn’t reaching developmental milestones and seemed unable to control his head movements.
After the cerebral palsy diagnosis Armani was lucky enough to gain a placement at CPEC, based in Glen Waverley, which he attends twice a week and learns how to move his body and to communicate.
”You want a healthy baby girl or baby boy, it’s tough to find out that he did have this cyst,” Sherone said.
“But according to the neurologist, they thought it would only affect his peripheral vision.
“When we realised he wasn’t reaching milestones, you want to turn a blind eye to it at the start because you don’t want anything to be wrong with your baby but there comes a point when you need to get real and look more into it.”
Sherone and Armani were part of a special CPEC team that walked in the marathon, a group which has fast become a second family for the Armels.
“CPEC has that community feel. You wouldn’t wish this upon your worst enemy, but it’s so comforting to know you aren’t alone,” Sherone said.
“There’s so many people, beautiful people, going through the same thing every day.”
And despite the persistent challenges, it’s Sherone’s own strength, and her love for Armani, that drives her continual positive outlook.
“You have to be strong for your baby, at the end of the day he’s the one that’s going through it,” she said.
“I would much rather go through it than him. You have to have a positive outlook or you will get stuck in a rut.
“It’s really not worth being negative because you’ll miss out on your child. You appreciate those little things that really get you through.”
Donations can still be made to CPEC by visiting melbournemarathon2014.everydayhero.com/au/Armani.
For more information about CPEC, visit www.cpec.org.au.
