Family grateful for support after son’s accident

Katanning’s Bolto family have extended their gratitude to Katanning and the wider community in response to the support and money raised for them following son Hamish’s motorbike accident last year.

Hamish, 12, has been making good progress in his recovery after he sliced open his trachea in a motorbike accident on Anzac Day, 2015.

His injuries were further complicated when he suffered a stroke caused by a blood clot in his brain and surgeons had to remove a 14cm piece of skull to relieve pressure.

Hamish and his parents spent 101 days in hospital in Perth and in that time friends, family and strangers raised tens of thousands of dollars to help the family with their recovery.

The Hamburgers for Hamish fundraiser collected more than $20,000 while the Enduro Motorcycle club raised a further $13,000 during a fundraising race for Hamish.

Hamish’s dad, Cameron Bolto, said they also had donations from the Professionals real estate group, the Telethon Adventurers, as well as people they had never met before from places such as Busselton and Kojonup.

Hamish’s mum, Paula Bolto, said she was absolutely blown away and it still brought her to tears when she thought of all the support offered.

Ms Bolto said there was a long list of people she wanted to thank for all of the support they had offered such as the St Patrick’s primary school community; the Katanning hospital nurses and doctors; Ronald McDonald House and the surgeons, doctors, nurses and staff in Perth, who had helped Hamish in his recovery.

Some of the money raised had been used on a device called a Bioness, which fits over Hamish’s arm and hand.

It uses an electric current to stimulate the nerves in an attempt to rebuild the pathways required to gain functional use of his hand.

Hamish is now also able to get out on a set of wheels again with the arrival of a modified recumbent tricycle, upon which he was eager to demonstrate how fast it could go around the Bolto’s front yard.

Mr Bolto said a lot of the money had been put away and saved in case an opportunity to be involved in an emerging therapy presented itself to Hamish and his family.

“We left the rest of the money in case someone says there’s something in the US worth trying or now in Switzerland they are starting to grow vocal cord nerves, so who knows, in 10 years time a treatment like that might be a real possibility,” he said.

For now, Hamish is attending Katanning Senior High School four days a week.

When asked how he was finding school, he replied with the most normal answer you could expect from a 12-year-old boy: “boring”.