Thanks to worldwide support, friends, family and local organisations Matthew reached his target and his epic iLimb has now been paid for. Phew! Nicole - we could't have done it without you.

An Epic End to 2011.

We had an amazing year which saw an F1 team get behind our son's quest
for a new hand. Matthew's letter to Ross Brawn at Mercedes GP kicked off a summer
of amazing adventure for us; meeting the team at MGP HQ, dropping in at Silverstone
to meet and chat to the drivers, watching the GP at the Mercedes GP Family Day.

We'd like to thank everyone that supported Matthew and helped him to reach his target. The support we received from across the globe was humbling. With the backing of the Mercedes GP team and with Ross's PA, Nicole, driving the campaign we got off to a great start. With half the funds raised Touch Bionics invited Matthew up to Scotland to start the process of fitting a new iLimb. And of course we have to thank Touch Bionics for reducing the cost of the iLimb through technology sharing with Mercedes GP.

We came back from Scotland hoping for a little publicity to help raise the final £5000 needed to fully pay for the new arm. None of us expected the avalanch of media interest that hit us. Matthew loved the attention - the TV crews and newspaper articles and radio phone-ins all came as second nature. We asked the TV shows for donations where they could and all but one kept their promise. Every little has helped.

We'd like to thank the local TV and newspapers, especially the Wokingham Times, who followed up Matthew's story a couple of times, keeping him in the public eye. It was through this publicity that the fundraising target was reached with donations from the local Lions and Masonic charities.

I finished the year (and almost myself) by running the Grim Challenge to raise money for the charity which has supported us since Matthew was 6 weeks old; REACH.

It's going to be tough to beat 2011 for fun and excitement but we're going to do our best!
Love,
The James family