I was inspired to draw this image after visiting a foster mother of three; two boys with Down’s syndrome who had been with her from an early age, and a woman in her thirties with learning disabilities. When the doctor described the family we would be visiting that day, and mentioned that we would be the pat be hearing the story of was one of the sons with Downs syndrome, now in his early twenties years, I merely thought we would be told about the difficulties and challenges of raising a child with Down’s syndrome. However, we discovered this young man had recently encountered health problems which were causing him much distress and behavioural changes. These health problems have yet to be diagnosed, leaving his mother in the dark and facing the unknown as to what will become of her foster son.

The first impression I gained of the mother was how protective she was of her son and how much love she had for him. She clearly thought of him as her own and her world seemed to collapse watching him suffer and not knowing the cause of his distress. She told us of how she would give anything to stop her son’s pain. I therefore represented the relationship between the mother and her child with a mother bear and cub. The mother bear is standing over her cub in a protective manner, trying to shield it from the darkness around them.

Although the mother had some support from her family, she was her son’s main carer and did not receive help elsewhere. Therefore I have only represented the mother in the picture, caring for her cub by herself. I felt a sense of loneliness from her as she felt she had no-one to talk to except one of her friends, and her husband could not cope with the situation well enough to take an active role in his son’s care. Because of this the surroundings in the image are bare with the mother bear at the centre.

One morning her son woke up screaming, which immediately made me think he was having nightmare-episodes. His mother described the force with which her son clung to her and scratched her to get as physically close as he could. This carried on for a further two weeks and from the day it started her son became fearful of many things in his life which had never bothered him before, such as going into rooms with high ceilings, coming downstairs and the dark. In my drawing the cub represents the vulnerability of the son as he is hiding underneath his mother. The cub sees its mother as safety and protection from the darkness around it – this represents the cub’s fear and that its condition that may be causing this fear. The son would often go to his mother complaining of headaches and asking her for them to carry on no longer.

The bears in the picture are standing on ice. I have drawn the mother looking at her reflection in the ice to express her fears for the future. She only sees her reflection and her cub’s reflection is missing as she is scared of the possibility of waking up one morning and her son not being there. I was shocked and saddened by the fear she had that could become a reality if his health problems were more serious than I anticipated. Secondly the ice represents the instability of her son’s condition – which could deteriorate further or improve, however improvement is unlikely as he has not yet been diagnosed and is therefore not undergoing any treatment except taking painkillers. His mother does not know what to expect each day, like walking on ice – it could break and they could fall through at any moment, or it could remain intact, however they still have to remain cautious at all times and would remain fearful.

We asked the mother what she thought was causing her son’s pain in his head and strange behaviour. She expressed to us her concern that his condition was related to his Down’s syndrome as the weakness in his neck may be causing referred pain to his head. She also had theories that he was having seizures as he was scared to go into big open spaces or downstairs as he relates this to having the seizures. Whatever the cause – his condition completely changed his and his family’s outlook on life. To represent this I have drawn an eclipse, created by chromosomes blocking out the light. This shows his condition which may be due to his Down’s syndrome, hence the chromosomes, is plummeting their lives into darkness.

The eclipse also represents the barrier created by the son’s Down’s syndrome. He is unable to communicate effectively with his mother or any doctors and so cannot describe what he feels when he has headaches or apparent seizures. This may be crucial for him to be diagnosed correctly. Until then his family, particularly his mother, will remain in despair.

Hearing the son’s story allowed me to empathise with the feelings of his mother who is suffering from watching her son in pain and in fear. I understood when she told us she would rather her son was diagnosed and they were told he had a month left to live than go on not knowing what they would have to face each day. I also empathised with the son, how afraid he must feel to not understand what was going on and for other people to not understand or not be able to help him.