A six-year-old boy whose chronic condition prevents him from flying was treated to an exclusive experience with Moray’s most celebrated helicopter in its new home yesterday.
Spike Coates and his family were special guests at Morayvia’s science and technology experience project (STEP), as the charity’s £30,000 Sea King exhibit was unveiled for the first time.
The product of months of campaigning, the aircraft now forms the centrepiece of the North Road site’s new display which will be officially opened later this year.
Spike was born three months prematurely, weighing 1lb 40z, and was given a 5% chance of survival after being diagnosed with a rare chronic intestinal condition called neuropathic pseudo-obstruction.
To date, there is no cure, but an ileostomy, a gastrostomy and various treatments allow him to get by day-to-day and meant he and his family could travel to Findhorn from their home in London to enjoy a summer holiday with their grandparents.
As Spike scrambled around the Sea King’s cockpit yesterday, his mother Nicola Coates said: “He has complex medical conditions, but he is a miracle child.
“It is really amazing up here for his health, and life experiences like this today are incredible.
“Some people determine his condition as life-limiting, but personally my husband and I don’t, we are far more optimistic.
“The Sea King is something Spike can go back to London and tell all his peers about.
“It is as close as he can get to experiencing flying because he is not allowed to fly currently, but today he did something that very few of his peers will have done and for that we feel really privileged.”
On show alongside the Sea King were the centre’s Nimrod, a Canberra B2, a Jet Provost cockpit, a Vampire and a Commer fire engine.
Morayvia cheif executive Stan Barber said the site was still a work in progress but it was great to be able to welcome the Coates family.
He said: “The key question of when we are open depends on further work in the internal exhibits, the building facilities such as the toilets as well as the management of visitors.
“There is much work to be done and the plan is to have select openings at weekends in September by an online ticketed system, followed by a formal opening in time for the October school break.”