Zander's Mission

Who is Zander and what's he up to?

For those who don't know, he is the 12 year old son of Corrine Thorne Glass Artist and he has been making glass since he was 4! 

When he was about 8 he created 7 pieces, 5 went to fans in the UK, 1 to Florida and 1 to Missouri. That boy is going places! 

He made enough money to go to the Tank Museum and also buy a book about tanks and a soft toy tank he calls Tanky. 

He loves making glass and even sold some at the markets at Christmas to help him pay for a day out. As a small business and single mum, it's hard to always get the things I'd like to get him. Zander sat in his room and calculated how many glass pendants he would need to make and how much to sell them for so he could make enough money for his dream item. 

He's 12, loves gaming, well he is 12 haha 

His second hand PS4 has officially died and he would like to be able to purchase a PS5. Yes it's a luxury, which I am well aware of and costs more than I paid for one of my cars! But, this boy is amazing. He's doing great in his new school, winning the uniform and attendance award, he's also won student of the month for his house. He's doing all his homework, helps me around the house and is just such a wonderful son.

The fact he isn't asking me to buy it for him, but wants to work for it, shows a fantastic work ethic for someone so young. 

So, over the next few weeks he is going to be making some pendants with beautiful dichroic glass, using the kiln, grinding and adding bails to create lovely pieces of jewellery. We are also going to film it and upload it to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. . 

Once they are finished I will be placing them online for sale.  We do hope you will join him on his journey as he would love it.

Zander was diagnosed with absence seizure, historically known as peti mal seizures. We call them blanks. 

'Generalized epilepsy, often affecting children aged 4–14, characterized by a sudden 5–10 second, and rarely more than 20 second, loss of consciousness, staring, and blankness'. 

Zander suffers from short term memory loss when he has them which can disrupt his learning and other aspects of his life. They are so quick that it's hard to spot them most of the time, but he won't know what's been said. He has also continued pouring a drink over the table as he froze and didn't know he was doing it along with other things. 

We noticed it when he was little but didn't know what it was.  When he was 4 we had our 1st holiday abroad to turkey. In the holiday he stated convulsing. He was blue lighted to a hospital in Turkey but they couldn't stop in convulsing after an hour. They induced a coma and thankfully he came out with no issues. A very emotional time for us all. 

We were referred to a consultant and after many years, 4 EEGs and an MRI, they diagnosed him. He's on medication and so far so good. 

It is really important to teach Zander that he doesn't need to allow the 'blanks' to limit what he can do.