In a spot near Peterculter where 11-year-old MJ Dyer once enjoyed happy days out, a memorial bench now stands in his honour. Seven months on from his death, as part of A Place to Remember series, mum Mel pays tribute to her “gorgeous smiley boy” and shares with us the poignant story behind his memorial bench. Longed-for firstborn Matthew James Dyer – better known as MJ – was born on November 22 2011, the first son of Luke and Mel Dyer from Aberdeen’s West End.
A traumatic arrival, their longed-for baby boy was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, as a result of oxygen starvation at birth, when he was six months old. “Initially we were just so relieved to have a baby to take home with us, such was the trauma we both went through,” said mum Mel, who begins a nursing degree in September. The former beauty therapist and her husband felt lucky MJ had survived the ordeal and were discharged believing everything to be okay.
“It was only when he wasn’t meeting his milestones and was struggling to thrive that it became clear that it wasn’t the case. “Celebral palsy is an umbrella term, and within it there’s a spectrum of how much or how little a child will be affected by it. MJ was at the most severe end of that spectrum,” added Mel.
Infectious giggles The reality for MJ was that although he was full of smiles and able to communicate what made him happy, he was never able to sit up unaided or to walk at all, would need to be fed via a tube, suffered muscle tone dif.
