The family of a boy who was thrown off a platform at the Tate Modern by a teenager have issued an update on his health.
A young French boy was six years old when, on 4 August 2019, he was thrown from the art gallery’s 10th floor balcony by 17-year-old Jonty Bravery.
The child fell 30 metres from the London gallery’s viewing platform and survived, but suffered life-changing injuries, including a bleed on the brain and several broken bones.
Bravery pleaded guilty to attempted murder and in 2020 was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
A previous update on the boy’s health from 2023 said that he could bend down to pick up toys and clothes without falling over, and that he now only needed his wheelchair for ‘long outings’.
The boy was thrown from the Tate Modern in 2019 and has been recovering ever since (TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Now, they have issued a new update on the boy’s health via a GoFundMe page set up to support the family, which can be donated to here.
They explained that the boy had been practising riding a tricycle and had set himself the goal of riding it several kilometres to a nearby beach to have a picnic on it with his dad, which he’d successfully managed to do.
“Our son also continues to gain cognitive endurance. His memory skills are still very limited, but they are functional and still improving, so he is acquiring a general knowledge at his own pace, which increasingly allows him to be included with other children,” the family update revealed.
“He’s also maturing, and thanks to his work with the psychomotor therapist, he now allows himself to relax. Previously, to compensate for his weakness on the left side, he kept his right side constantly tense, which caused him pain.
“Today, our pre-teen (we have to face the facts, he’s not a little boy anymore) has understood that he needs to give himself breaks; we need to remind him less.
“Thanks to all this progress, he has been able to find his place in the local middle school.”
The boy’s family say his condition is improving, but he’ll have to go in for an operation next year (TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite the recovery, the boy is still having to complete ’10 rehabilitation sessions per week’ which meant he only had time to make it to half of his classes.
As such the family are looking at other schools which would allow him time for lessons and rehab, which they say might mean they have to move house.
The kid wants to be able to ‘run, jump and swim again’ with his family saying he ‘can’t do it like other children his age’, but he was able to do these activities for short distances.
However, despite the gains in mobility he has made, he will have to stop moving for a couple of months next year as his next operation is then, with the family saying it is ‘an essential step for him to progress further and reduce his pain’.
The family thanked everyone who had been supporting them over the years and promised to provide more updates in the future.
