Charity Lot: Mercedes F1 Signed Technical Drawing

The print has been signed in black marker alongside their printed name by Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Toto Wolff, James Allison and Andy Cowell with dimensions measuring 29.7 x 42.0cm (A3 size). These signed prints were only given to team members and associates etc. in very limited numbers and were not available for general sale.

The F1 W10 EQ Power+ took 15 wins (four for Bottas and eleven for Hamilton), ten pole positions (five for Hamilton and five for Bottas), nine fastest laps (three for Bottas and six for Hamilton), seven front-row lockouts and nine 1–2 finishes. The car also took Mercedes to their sixth consecutive Constructors’ Championship and Hamilton to his sixth Drivers’ Championship. This signed commemorative print is highly collectable and comes framed and with a certificate of authenticity.

Billy's Story

"Hello my name is Billy and I am 8 years old, I am at school and I am loving it, but I really wish I could join in more with my friends at playtime's. I would love to run and play football. When I am at home I like to spend time with my mummy, daddy and my little sister Kitty. I would love to be able to go on bike rides with my daddy and fly around on a scooter like all my friends. I am really hoping one day my dream will come true.

Billy was born in 2013 and for Pete and I we felt our world was complete. As all new parents we thought Billy was perfect and we were just so in love with him. When Billy was about 3 months old we took him swimming and a friend of ours pointed out a couple of things to us, one was his head was tilted over to one side and the other was his feet were really stiff.  As we had never had any children before we had not noticed any of these things and we straight away took him to the doctors. The doctor picked up on his neck more so than his feet and Billy went through a course of physio to help him straighten his head.  

As the weeks went on and the milestones started to come up we noticed that Billy was not hitting the milestones of sitting up, crawling or walking like our friends' children of the same age. At about 8 months old we took him back to the doctor and that was the beginning of a downward spiral of fighting to find a diagnosis.

At 15 months old Billy had his first MRI which came back all clear, at the time we were so happy as we thought that maybe he was just slower in his development.  At 16 months old Billy started commando crawling and then at 19 months he began crawling on his knees so we again were hopeful  that he would do it in his own time. At just over 2 years old Billy had his 2nd MRI and yet again it came back clear, this time we were not so happy as without a diagnosis we had realised it was impossible to get Billy the help he needed.

Throughout Billy’s life he has been on several different drugs, had botox in his legs twice, had physio twice a week since he was 15 months old and had full support at nursery to help him with his mobility. Pete and I have tried several different treatments to help
Billy we have taken to a chiropractor, an osteopath, cognitive therapy but as he gets older we realise we are running out of time as he is of an age now where he wants to be like his friends he wants to run, jump, skip, ride a bike all of those things and as his parents we want to get him there.

Our ultimate goal is to raise enough funds for Billy to have an operation to reduce the spasticity in his legs. Billy is now ready for this operation which is a gruelling  5-6 hours and more importantly Billy will require 3-4 sessions of private physiotherapy a week for up to 3 years. We have a huge amount of work to do in strengthening him physically and mentally so that he is strong enough for this procedure.

To fund this operation and the physiotherapy pre and post operation along with equipment and intensive fitness sessions we needed to raise approximately £85,000, and we can now see the finishing line having reached 70% of the target."

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/billyhumphreys 

Billy's Football Match

On November 14th I organised a 12 hour football match to help raise funds for Billy as he is a member of my disability football team. We also ran a raffle and we were donated some fantastic prizes from the local community and also some larger organisations. The event raised around £13,400 for the charity but we were also donated 3 Formula 1 items that we felt worthy of going to an auction to maximise the donations for Billy.

https://www.justgiving.com/team/Billysfootballmatch