Zion Masters is the type of son all parents crave. He’s only nine years old and plays an important role in caring for his 12-year-old sister Bailey, who has Pitt Hopkins Syndrome. Unfortunately, that means Zion doesn’t always get the attention he needs.
Bailey is intellectually delayed and non-verbal, which means she is extremely dependant on her and Zion’s mum, Elle. That takes up a lot of Elle’s time. Luckily, she can count on Zion to help out when she needs it. “Zion is a huge help in looking after his sister and has a special bond with her,” explains Elle. “However, he is struggling with the fact he sometimes doesn’t get as much attention as Bailey, due to her requirements.” Zion helps Elle by cleaning up after his sister, getting her dressed when Elle is busy, making her breakfast and getting her to the car. In short, he’s pretty much the perfect little-big brother. Elle reached out to Satan’s Little Helper because she thought Zion deserved to feel special, to be the centre of attention for once, and wanted him to have a day out in a low-stress environment. Well, we couldn’t agree more! Selfless kids who do good things deserve to have good stuff happen to them, so we sent him and four companions to laser tag at Lilliputt Fun Zone. It turned into a bit of a family reunion, as one cousin came from Christchurch, another from Tokoroa and a third from Whakatane to spend the day with Zion. “There ended up being 13 of us. We invited friends and then Zion’s uncles and cousins wanted to come as well. It was really good seeing them come from so far away. It was a good catch up for everyone.” Zion says he was ‘10/10 excited to go’ and ended up winning all three games they played and burned lots of energy running around the place. “It made me and my friends feel really happy. Everyone had such a good time!” Elle was really pleased with the weekend – it was the first time Zion spent time with his friends without his sister, which is exactly what she wanted. “It was a special day,” she says. “It was so good for him to know that he’s got lots of family and friends who love him and that he means a lot to them, as they had to drive a few hours to get here.”
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