Vital steps to give Indian kids a chance to walk

Vital steps to give Indian kids a chance to walk

James Tulloch has put his injury behind him to raise money to help Salmon Raj take his first steps

JULIA HORTON jhorton@edinburghnews.com

GAZING at the frail Indian schoolboy lying in agony, held down on his hospital bed by weights hanging from his ankles, James Tulloch felt both shock and recognition. Some 20 years previously it was him trapped in a ward, unable to walk after breaking his back in a skiing accident in Scotland.

But the standard of facilities which helped him get back on his feet could not have been more different to the pitiful conditions in which he found Salmon Raj. Traction at the old Edenhall Hospital in 1980s Edinburgh was a painful, frustrating experience, but it was nothing like the brutally basic weights system which children like Salmon are forced to endure in India today. The cause of their agony was also worlds apart. Salmon had never been able to walk, let alone ski, after he was crippled by polio as a baby because, unlike James, he was growing up in a part of the world where children are not given vaccines to protect them. But the fear of never being able to walk - and the determination to try - has been the same for them both. It is that understanding which spurred James into walking the West Highland Way to raise £3000 for surgery and physiotherapy to help Salmon Raj, 15, and another polio-afflicted boy, Kumaraja, 16, to walk normally. He heard about the boys' plight through Gillie Davidson, a family friend in Edinburgh and founder of Scottish Love in Action (SLA). The city-based charity runs a home-cum-school in the town of Tuni in the south-east Indian state of Andhra Pradesh for hundreds of "Dalit", or untouchable, children like Salmon. Many have been orphaned after their parents died from Aids and have been rescued from forced labour and child prostitution. After the fundraising walk - no mean feat for a man who cannot run and still has a "dodgy" left leg - James went one step further, leaving his Broughton home and moving to India for ten months to help Salmon and Kumaraja take their first steps. Recalling his first encounter with Salmon last year, James, 33, says: "He was in terrible pain. He could hardly move. "The weights were attached to his ankles to try to stretch the ligaments and tendons in his legs after the operation he had had to try to straighten them. "The traction system was so rudimentary it was painful to watch. I was quite taken aback by how basic the care was. "I remember I was in traction for months in Edenhall after the operation on my back. I was in a lot of pain too." Born into poverty, living with his rickshaw driver father, mother and half a dozen brothers and sisters in a remote village, hope is something which Salmon lacked for years. But today thanks to James and SLA, his life has changed beyond recognition. Months of arduous physiotherapy given first by James, and later by an Indian therapist, have been so successful that he has begun walking without support. James says: "Salmon's progress has been miraculous. A year ago he was crawling around on all fours. Now he is standing upright, walking with crutches and can take a few dozen steps unaided. He is even playing cricket! " After spending years undergoing physiotherapy himself following his skiing accident at Aviemore, former Fettes College pupil James could relate well to the boys' frustrations. "In hospital I would dream that I was running around and then waking up to find I was still lying there unable to move." "When I was doing Salmon's physiotherapy I would tease him, tell jokes, put music on, anything to motivate him when he didn't want to do his exercises. "Working with Salmon was very satisfying. He did very well and often he was asking to do extra." Kumaraja, whose condition was less serious than Salmon's, is also now walking with the aid of crutches. There are still huge hurdles ahead however. James, who also taught the children English and helped dish out meals every day, knows through personal experience the limitations of recovery. Although he can walk, he never regained the ability to run. "That was one of my lowest moments. After I learned to walk again I found skiing came surprisingly easily. I can't run though and if I come to a big stream when I'm walking I can't jump across, I have to wade." Growing up without his mother, who died years before James' accident, he still had the love and support of his father, Iain, who later remarried and now lives in Spain, and his sister Sarah, now 30 and living in Bristol. Living apart from their families is just one of the difficulties which Salmon Raj and Kumaraja face as they strive for a similarly independent, happy life. One of the keys to a successful future is education. But with food prices rocketing after a year of drought and cyclones and basic needs like clothing, shelter and medicine taking priority, families cannot afford schooling. James says: "Salmon would like to be a church minister. Another boy wants to be an engineer. "But after they finish tenth class [the equivalent of Standard grades] these children have very limited opportunities to go on to vocational college or university instead of ending up back in the same cycle of poverty." It is this gap which inspired James to embark on his latest fundraiser, a ten-day trek through the Himalayas to the famous Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal. He hopes to raise a further £3000 to launch a further education fund for children at the home. SLA founder Gillie says: "I'm incredibly proud of James, as I am of all the young people who go out. The children have just loved him. He has contributed so much. "It just shows that nothing can defeat you if you have the determination. I think what he's done is wonderful." Other volunteers from Edinburgh who have worked with children at the SLA home in India include reality TV show millionaire Johnny Gibb and pupils and teachers at George Watson's College, who raised several thousand pounds for a dining hall. Meanwhile, after travelling through Nepal and India, James plans to return to Edinburgh at the end of the year and continue his previous work as a journalist. But he will be back in India again one day to see Salmon, Kumaraja and the other children at the home. • To support James Tulloch's fundraising efforts visit the website www.justgiving.com/himalayawalkabout • For more information about Scottish Love in Action visit

www.sla-india.org

or call 0131-455 7153

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