Daniel cannot communicate verbally, but carers had a “finely tuned” way of understanding him, Gavin explained.
“Whether it’s hand gestures, moving his feet, it could be the blink of an eye, he’s trying to communicate what’s wrong with him,” he said.
Recently, a staff member was quick to react when his bowel ripped through his abdominal wall, putting pressure on his lungs, and he was taken to hospital.
Gavin said: “We nearly lost him.
“This is a death sentence for each and every one of them to be leaving Sherburn without getting the special care that these guys have trained for the last 10 years.”
As well as relationships with staff and the local hospital, Rebecca said residents’ hobbies and friends were at Sherburn House and in the surrounding area.
“Dan goes and watches the football,” she said.
“He has all of his social activities centred around here so why should he have to lose out on that?”
She added that the weeks since learning about the closure had been similar to a “grieving process”.
“It’s the loss of the home that Daniel’s had for the last 10 years, and then the staff. It’s all being ripped apart.”
She launched a petition against the closure which reached almost 1,000 signatures in its first week.
She and Gavin said that it demonstrated more could have been done to help the Wilf Ward Family Trust to overcome its financial challenges, through fundraising.
“We could have somehow helped, but we didn’t have the opportunity,” Gavin said.
