'I stay in a camper to be close to my injured son'

The mother of a man who suffered severe brain damage due to diabetes says she wants to "create happy memories" by bringing him home to be close to his family on the Isle of Man.

Jo Dunne has been spending several days each week sleeping in a camper van in the car park of a Liverpool care home to be near her son, Ethan Richardson.

She said the family planned to make conversions to their home in the south of the island to enable the 28-year-old, who is father to a young son, to be "back in his own surroundings, with his family around him".

Ethan, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 14 , suffered a severe brain injury as a result of the condition in September 2024, which left him in intensive care at Noble's Hospital.

After showing signs of wakefulness, he was transferred to the Sid Watkins Rehabilitation Centre in Liverpool on 23 December that year.

Following an intense assessment period, he was diagnosed as being "minimally conscious negative" – where patients show signs of partial conscious awareness inconsistently.

Ethan remained at the facility until September 2025 before being moved to a neurological care home while an extensive second independent assessment was carried out.

Jo said: "We never anticipated we'd be in the UK for this length of time, we were envisaging we'd be back home at the end of January.

"So in February I said to Paul [her husband], bring the camper."

"It would reduce the cost of accommodation, but it would also put me on site if there was an issue, it would be close by to Ethan," she said.

"At least in the car park, I knew that there was CCTV, it was floodlit, and they had security, and that was a bonus."

Jo said, despite the challenges of living in the camper, the community of Liverpool had been "fantastic".

"They really have scooped us up, the local library did my washing for me."

Jo said the family was now learning to communicate with Ethan "in a different way".

"He'll hold my hand, he tracks, he communicates and expresses an emotion through his eyes, facial movements," she said, "so he'll smile, cry, screw his face up if not too happy about something."

"He may well emerge out of that, but as time goes on, it becomes less likely."

Discussions are currently underway with Manx Care about the options for Ethan to return to the island following the completion of the assessments.

A fundraising appeal to support the alterations needed to allow him to return to the family home has so far raised more than £24,000.

"We feel it is in Ethan's best interest to be back at home, back in his own surroundings, with his family around him - we feel that that will maximise any recovery for Ethan," Jo said.

She said her son, who had a life-long passion for cars, was the "most loving, laid-back, sensitive man" who was a doting father to his own son.

"Becoming a dad really was the making of Ethan, he just had a real strong sense of wanting to be a family man," she said.

Jo said the family's current situation was "horrendous" and was "every parent's worst nightmare really".

"I can still see glimmers of Ethan there, you know, when he smiles," she said.

"But there's a massive grief and loss of the Ethan that we had and the Ethan that could have been."

She said the family being told that Ethan's lifespan was significantly reduced because of the brain injury had created an added motivation to get him home.

"We absolutely know it is not going to be any easy road," she said.

"It's going to present itself with many challenges but we also know it's where Ethan would want to be."

"For me I just want to create happy memories for Ethan and for our family and his little boy.

"That's all I could hope for."

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