A mum-of-four forced to put her whole family into coronavirus lockdown for 14 weeks says "you have to see the silver lining".
Kirsty Hostick's six-year-old son Blake has Acute Necrotising Encephalopathy (ANE), an ultra-rare neurological condition that left him unable to walk, talk or eat unaided after he was initially hospitalised with flu-like symptoms aged four in February 2018.
He is deemed to be at high risk should he get the virus, so the family from Hull went into lockdown a week before Boris Johnson ordered the nation to do the same.
Kirsty, her partner Joseph Dowell, Blake's older brothers Kayleb, eight, and Haydon, 11, and their baby brother Lucian have been embracing life at home, the Hull Daily Mail reports.
The positive-thinking mum says being at home means you get to spend time with members of your household that you wouldn't normally be able to.
On Monday evening, the Prime Minister said everyone should stay at home unless going to buy essential food or medicine, going to essential work that cannot be done from home, or doing one form of exercise per day.
Although Kirsty said the situation was "quite scary", she said the schools had been really understanding and now they're juggling tasks indoors.
The brothers have embraced the lockdown trend of painting rainbows to put up outside their home and brighten up their street.
"It's kept the children busy and put smiles on people's faces when they're going by with all the gloom and doom going round," mum Kirsty said.
"The kids absolutely loved it - they're really artsy anyway - plus it keeps us sane.
"You've got to make the most of it, we've got no choice in the matter, so you've got to see the silver lining.
"Everybody gets to spend time that we usually wouldn't get to spend together, Blake gets his brothers around during his therapies and we get to see a lot more of what the boys are doing at school.
"And there's a lot of good bonding going on for the baby, so it can actually be really nice - we'd go crazy if we didn't see it like that.
"We know we're in it for at least 14 weeks because of Blake, we know we're in it for the long haul - so we've got to enjoy it."
But the family is coping well so far.
"We're doing really well to be fair," she said.
"We are juggling getting school work done, doing all Blake's therapies and looking after the baby, but Blake has been enjoying it more having his brothers there to do it with him."
Blake has to do a number of exercises each day to help manage his condition.
And there has been more positive news for Blake while in lockdown, with the family receiving the Mollii suit they had been saving for for months to help with his muscle tension.
They had received countless donations to raise money for the suit, with numerous groups doing fundraising activities for Blake.
The suit works by sending electric signals through Blake's body, helping reduce muscle spasticity and supporting his movement.
"He seems to be responding really well, he's a lot more comfortable, so it's a nice thing to happen in the midst of all this so we're really pleased," Kirsty said.
"Those people are all absolutely amazing, it's turned our lives around and given him opportunities he wouldn't have had, so we can't thank people enough for that."
