COPING with a new baby and a three year old can be daunting for any mum but when you are only 21 and your son is severely disabled it can be overwhelming.

But young Sophie Lockett from South Walks in Bridport is determinedly cheerful and says despite his difficulties - and they are many - 10-month-old Oliver is worth it.

But she does need help - because after being deprived of oxygen for eight minutes at birth he has cerebral palsy and suffers daily epileptic seizures.

Sophie said: "He has been diagnosed spastic quadrapaligic. This means that it effects all of his limbs, he has very low muscle tone and simple day-to-day tasks such a sitting in a bouncer chair are virtually impossible. He is on multiple medications to control his muscle spasms and seizures."

This means that he cannot support himself so Sophie cannot put him down without a specialist chair - because his breathing is compromised and he'll develop curvature of the spine and problems with his pelvis.

Sophie has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise £5,000 to buy the chair.

She said: "He cannot sit in a normal chair himself. He cannot sit on a sofa. I basically have to hold him all the time. He can't go into a conventional high chair to eat because it just doesn't support him in the right way. He is so floppy his head would fall backwards, his shoulders would come forward and that is all compromising his breathing.

"He needs the support chair to keep him upright to put him in a position where he can breathe and to keep his spine and pelvis aligned otherwise he could develop curvature of the spine and his pelvis could collapse.

"All of those things will make it harder for him than it already is."

"And a chair will also enable Oliver to be able to sit on the floor and play with his older brother Tommy."

Sophie said she'd had a normal pregnancy and hadn't been expecting any complications.

But following a ten-hour labour and emergency caesarian Sophie and partner holiday park groundsman Ricky, were faced with the news that it took eight minutes to resuscitate Oliver who was tube fed, without human contact for the first weeks of his life.

He has had multiple MRI scans which all show that it has left him with severe brain damage across most of his brain.

Nursery nurse Sophie had been planning to go to Bournemouth University to study to be a midwife but she's had to put that on hold to look after Oliver.

While he was in hospital Sophie's persistence in getting him to feed eventually paid off and he no longer had to be tube fed.

She's equally dedicated to all the physiotherapy and sensory stimulation he needs to give him the best life possible.

Although with his painful muscle spasms he wakes frequently in the night and the family is often forced to take him to Dorset County Hospital in the middle of the night.

Sophie said: "It is tricky but he's worth it. I think we are coping quite well. It is a lot of work because physio therapy isn't just one session every two weeks, it is every single day, you have to hold him in certain position when you feed him, it's everything, stretching his muscles, it is relentless, it doesn't ever stop.

"And it is hard for Tommy as well. He doesn't understand that Oliver can't do multiple things at one time. If you are feeding him he can't handle any sensory stimulation so if you hold his hand it throws his brain out of sink and he can't cope with that, which is hard for Tommy to understand."

Sophie has a mum for support but as she works full-time it isn't often and Oliver's dad also works full-time.

She said: "I cope because he's my son and if I don't do it nobody else is going to and the outcomes he gets from life are all going to come from how much I put into him.

"We don't know what the future holds for Oliver. We don't know if he'll ever sit up, ever walk, ever speak, he hasn't even got use of his hands so he can't play with his toys by himself.

"But the more I do for him and the more equipment he has hopefully the stronger he'll get and the more he'll learn.

Sometimes his legs will go blue he's spasming so much

If you want to help Sophie and Oliver go to justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Helping-Oliver-Rees