UPDATE: Frankfort family raises money to get tandem bike for son with cerebral palsy

UPDATE: (12:33 P.M.) — Gideon Robinson finished 2nd in a national contest for a tandem bike.

The five-year-old with cerebral palsy was in The Great Bike Giveaway contest to win the $7,000 bike but didn’t get enough votes to win.

Instead, he was able to raise enough money for his own!

The goal was $5,400 and his mom, Abby, says they reached that Sunday night.

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FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) — A 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy wants you to vote for him so he can win a tandem adaptive bike.

This bike will allow Gideon to join family bike rides, something he hasn’t been able to do.

“He wants to be a big kid and to keep up with his siblings and I just know it would bring him joy just to be able to ride as a family together and just to be outside more often and just to feel like there wasn’t anything holding him back,” says his mother, Abby Robinson.

She says Gideon was adopted from Ethiopia as a 7-month-old baby, along with his three siblings.

But they didn’t know about his condition at the time and he wasn’t diagnosed until he was two.

“Although we knew that there was something going on we did not know the extent of his special needs nor what that would look like,” says Robinson.

She says they weren’t sure if he would ever walk but he is up and running and jumping and just so full of life and energy.

Robinson says cerebral palsy causes gaps in brain development that can affect – in Gideon’s case – speech, balance, chewing, sleeping, along with other functions.

She says he is not independent and at school has an assistant with him at all times.

Gideon spends around 12 hours a week in therapy with the family traveling from Frankfort to Lexington to Shelby and even to Cincinnati.

The tandem bike they’re hoping to win costs around $7,000.

“He would be strapped into a harness so he would be safe in a seat that was made for him and then he would still get to pedal but he would have the safety of me riding behind and being in charge,” says Robinson.

She says she’s so thankful for technology that helps make Gideon’s life easier, but it costs a pretty penny.

“The bike is not something that we would normally be able to spend or provide for him,” says Robinson.

She says the pedaling could help strengthen Gideon’s legs. Right now he has braces on his ankles to keep his feet leveled, allowing him to walk.

“So the fact he would be on and getting that movement could help him to be potentially more independent in the future,” says Robinson.

You can vote for Gideon here. He is currently in fourth place.