Dillon

Hi, my name is Dillon Chapman and I am 8 years old. I have Neurofibromatosis type 1 and I use a wheelchair quite a lot now. I live in a small village called Nunney near Frome in Somerset. This is the town where Jenson Button was born. I live with my mum Dawn, and my dad Mark.

I love anything to do with motorbikes and follow the Moto GP and British and World Superbikes all the time. Last year I had a wish granted from the Make A Wish Foundation and I met my Moto GP hero Dani Pedrosa. It was magical and I felt so priviledged to be able to do that. Dani promised that we would remain friends and this year I went to Silverstone for 3 days to see him again and it was just the best week-end ever.  Mum and Dad are going to take me to watch Dani at Catalunya, Spain next year.  This is his home track and I am so excited.

I love playing on the Wii AND ps2 with my dad.  We race each other on the Moto Gp game and I usually beat him.

I don't see myself as being disabled.  I'm just made with differences.  Its as good or bad as I choose it to be, so mum and dad say forget what you can't do and focus on what you CAN do and the world's your oyster.............so that's what I do.

I attend St.Louis school in Frome and I have some lovely teachers and friends there. The best thing is that even though I have a wheelchair they treat me as a normal little boy and I like that. I play football before school with the boys and I have joined tag rugby after school on a Friday.  I can get frustrated at times because my friends are so fast when they run doing sports and I can be left behind.

I have spent time recently at Guys Hospital in London having an MRI and a Pet Scan to determine how my body has changed and what we have to do to look after me in the future.  The doctors asked me in June to consider having my leg amputated if the scans show that this may be necessary.  I have thought a lot about this and would really like this to be possible.  I think I could do a lot with a false leg and plan to do a walking marathon next year for cancer research.  Watch this space.!!

There are lots of things that I do differently to other people but when you have a different body you need to figure out your way of doing things and above all never give up.