Magic camp lends Tristan a hand A normal day for seven-year-old Tristan Landuyt is an obstacle course of minor humiliations. He has a condition called hemiplegia, which means his arm and hand on the right side of his body are weak and, until recently, were virtually useless. Simple daily tasks such as putting toothpaste on his toothbrush, using a knife and fork or getting books out of his satchel were done with agonising slowness. Last week, however, Tristan, from Worcester Park in Surrey, did something magical - literally. He began using his once near-useless hand for all those fiddly two-handed tasks. Even more impressive, he delighted an audience at Guy's Hospital, London, with magical tricks that even his physiotherapist and parents would have found challenging. "The physiotherapists told us what actions the exercises had to involve," said Richard McDougall, one of the two magicians involved. Things like using thumb and forefinger to pick something up, rotating the wrist and holding the palm out flat. We incorporated these in the movements needed to do various magic tricks. Tristan's mother Katharine described it as "a most amazing week. Tristan is able to put his thumb and forefinger together for the first time. He did a magic trick this morning, putting a ball in his top pocket and making it reappear in an eggcup on the table. The look on his face was magic itself. The camp has had other benefits, too: "There was a wonderful moment when he realised that he wasn't alone - that there were other children in the world who couldn't easily pull on socks or zip up trousers." Camp organiser Yvonne Farquarson, of Guy's & St Thomas" Charity, agrees: "The sense of camaraderie and confidence-boosting for doing tricks even some adults couldn't manage was marvellous to see." Dr Dido Green, a reader in rehabilitation at Oxford Brookes University, who measured the children's use of their affected hands before and after the camp, said: "There are 29 two-handed tasks an able-bodied child will do in an average day. At the beginning of the camp, the children were on average able to do 11 of these. By the end of the camp, they were doing on average 22. Dr Green, who developed the concept, added: "Many adult stroke patients find repetitive exercises hard, because they involve trying things that they used to do easily but which they now find hard. Learning magic would be a much more rewarding method. Information: hemihelp.org.uk; gsttcharity.org.uk