'I've travelled more than 100,000 miles to hug my son'

West Country
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
Wednesday 14 October 2015 at 11:33am

Josh's parents have each been travelling 260 miles every weekend to visit Josh in Birmingham for the last 3 years Credit: Phil Wills

The father of a severely autistic boy from Cornwall says a long running campaign for him to be treated nearer home may be nearing victory.Josh Wills was moved to a specialist care unit in Birmingham in 2012, because his condition is so extreme he sometimes causes himself serious injuries.

Josh once bit part of his tongue so badly, a third of it needed to be removed.At the time, the family was told there was no suitable care provider in Cornwall that could meet Josh's needs.

That means his parents Phil Wills and Sarah Pedley have each been travelling 260 miles every weekend to visit Josh for the last 3 years.

Over 240,000 people signed a petition on Change.Org to bring Josh home.

In 2014 Kernow CCG and Cornwall Council agreed a special home could be set up for Josh near Hayle, where a team of carers would look after him.Josh was due to move there in February, that deadline then slipped to July, and there have since been a series of hold ups getting his care package in place.

Now the family have been given hope he could be home within weeks.

"The Council and Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group have been working with a local independent sector provider to create a specialist package of care to meet Josh's needs. > To provide the high level of care and support Josh needs it has been necessary to create a new service from scratch. This has involved the recruitment and training of a team of specialist staff, extensive adaptations to his home, and a number of visits from his multi-disciplinary team to the hospital in Birmingham where he currently lives to help develop the plan for his return to Cornwall. Following the recent confirmation by Ofsted that it has now formally registered the bespoke placement, we have begun arrangements to transfer him to his new home and expect these to be completed within the next two weeks." >

Josh turns 15 on Thursday 15th October and will be spending his birthday in Birmingham away from much of his family and younger siblings.

Dad, Phil Wills, set up a special PO Box for Josh's birthday cards and has received over 100 from well wishers across the globe. They're now going on display in Truro Cathedral.