- Marcel's mother, Carole Deschamps recounts the daily life of her son with Down's syndrome.
- The Extraordinaire Marcel's Facebook and Instagram accounts each show close to 50,000 subscribers.
- The mother has also just released a book at Flammarion in which she tells without taboo the daily life of her extraordinary family.
"There are still people who doubt it but we are really happy." Despite the disability of their son Marcel, who has Down's syndrome, the Deschamps family, who live in Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande near Rennes, display their happiness on social networks. Launched four years ago, the Extraordinaire Marcel's Facebook and Instagram accounts each have close to 50,000 subscribers. We discover all the joy of life and the carefree attitude of a child of four and a half years and his brother Basile, aged two. "I wanted to show Marcel's daily life in order to normalize it and make families aware of Down's syndrome," says the little boy's mother, 35 years old.
If the tone is light and positive, Carole Deschamps does not hide the difficulties she experienced with her husband either. "We had to mourn the idealized child," she says. It's very hard to tell yourself that your child is not like everyone else ”. But the couple, supported by family and loved ones, quickly found the resources to move forward. "We thought that our life was not screwed up, we just had to readjust it," says the mother.
A daily life punctuated by medical appointments
The heaviest for the family is undoubtedly the cumbersome administrative procedures. "Everything is longer and more complicated when you have a disabled child," sighs the mother, who hopes that the procedures will one day be simplified. Each week, we must also ensure Marcel's medical follow-up. "He has a lot of merit because he has three medical appointments on average every week," said Carole Deschamps. The rest of the time, Marcel, who will return to a large section from kindergarten to the start of the new school year, follows a classic education, very well supported. "He is a little pampered in class, especially by the girls who take care of him a lot," smiles the mother. At home, it is with his little brother Basile that Marcel lives his childhood life, quite simply.
Shared on social networks, these little moments of happiness were written down on paper with a book released in March at Flammarion. With humor and tenderness, Carole recounts without taboo the daily life of her "extraordinary" family. "It is I who speak this time while on social networks, I no longer express Marcel's point of view. I had to go further in confidence and in reflection. But it did me a lot of good to write, I expressed buried emotions, ”says the mother, who hopes that her book will help families overcome the ordeal of disability.
Health
The documentary "I will go to the moon" portrays six adults in search of autonomy
Paris
The restaurant that employs people with Down's syndrome launches its "human adventure" in the capital
- Reindeer
- Testimony
- Books
- Child
- Down's syndrome
- Handicap
- Society