One Special Day is nearly here, and we invite you to meet Stafford, an amazing gamer we’ve had the honour of helping because of your incredible support!

Stafford enjoyed many epic family gaming battles before until a sepsis complication resulted in him having his arms and legs amputated.

He was eager to explore the possibility of playing again to the best of his abilities, so after an initial video call with our specialist assessment team, a home visit was arranged.

Stafford had enjoyed playing games like God of War, The Witcher, Call of Duty, and Gran Turismo 7 on a wide range of consoles, so our team began by looking at options for him to control his PS5 as effectively as possible. They suggested he started by trialling two Sony Access Controllers secured to a laptop Velcro tray.

The team showed Stafford how to remap the buttons on the controllers to suit his style of playing and range of movement, and they introduced him to setting up toggle actions, where an initial button press simulates a hold and a second press turns it off.

The equipment setup worked really well for him, so he was keen to try it with his Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. Our team suggested a solution for connecting it successfully to a Nintendo Switch, and he’s currently trialling a switch/joystick setup to his Xbox Series X that has a similar layout to the Access Controllers.

Our equipment, advice and support is opening up the world of gaming again for Stafford and giving him greater gaming independence and inclusion. Crucially, it’s also granting him hours of quality gaming time with his children again. As his son said to him, “Daddy, I’m so glad you’re back from hospital, I’ve really missed playing games like this with you!”

It’s a joy to hear what a wonderful impact our help has made for Stafford, and we’ll be there for him if he needs more support and advice in the future.

We’re working hard to give many others around the world the opportunity to participate as equals in a huge range amazing gaming environments, but we simply wouldn’t be able to do it without the support of our amazing friends in the global games industry and of course the many gamers, communities and individual donors who help fund our work through initiatives like One Special Day. Thank you – you’re truly making a life-changing difference!