A TEENAGER with Down’s Syndrome condemned to a life of severe disability by a medical blunder got a pleasant Christmas gift this week—an award recognising his top academic achievement at school. He has won the 2008 Dave Thompson Endeavour Award given to the top pupil at his school for achieving the most in class

By Mike Brooke

A TEENAGER with Down’s Syndrome condemned to a life of severe disability by a medical blunder got a pleasant Christmas gift this week—an award recognising his top academic achievement at school.

Halim Motin, the 18-year-old who won a 13-year legal battle with a £1 million High Court settlement earlier this year, needs 24-hour care for the rest of his life over negligence at a children’s clinic in London’s East End when he was just four.

Now he has won the 2008 Dave Thompson Endeavour Award given to the top pupil at his special needs school for achieving the most in class.

It was presented at Santa’s Christmas party by staff fom London Underground’s Northern Line who run their own charity fund for the Richard Cloudsley school at Old Street in Shoreditch.

“He is now able to complete every task given to him to the best of his ability,” said Head teacher Ann Corbet.

“Halim is now more self-aware and confident in what he wants and is really helpful with teachers and other pupils.

“This award highlights what he’s achieved in the time he’s been here.”

The school is the chosen beneficiary of the Northern Line Children’s Fund which raised £10,000 this year to support the children and their families.

Halim’s family in Spitalfields, East London, won the £1m High Court award in July to pay for care for the rest of his life.

His sister Rukia, 27, a primary school teaching-assistant, told the East London Advertiser at the time: “I had to take over the legal fight for compensation after my dad died.

“Our dad began this battle 13 years ago, but the case was very stressful and he died in the middle of it all when he was 49.”

Her little brother developed a complicated spinal cord disorder when he was four which sometimes affects Down’s Syndrome children and was taken to Bethnal Green’s former Queen Elizabeth Children’s Hospital with a chest infection.

But staff failed to recognise the significance of his condition or refer to him a neurological surgeon for assessment. He ended up in hospital for almost five years.

The NHS admitted liability and agreed to a settlement to cover his care costs for life.