Jonathan Bryan, 10, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy after his pregnant mother Chantal was injured in a car crash, which caused him to be starved of oxygen in the womb.
Chantal and her husband Christopher, who's the vicar at Church of the Holy Cross in Sherston in Wiltshire, rejected advice by doctors to consider ending his treatment, and in turn his life, as an infant.
They also dismissed special education teachers who did not seek to teach Jonathan to read or write because they felt his disabilities were too severe.
After years of teaching Jonathan to read, write and communicate via perspex panels with letters, numbers and symbols, he is now able to freely communicate and is the top of some of his classes at a secondary school for physically able children.
He writes a blog called 'eyecantalk', has produced an autobiography, and has written to the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and started a petition calling for every non-verbal child to be taught how to read and write in the same way that a verbal child would expect to be taught those things.
Jonathan is aware of the uncertainty surrounding his life expectancy and told the Mail on Sunday: "I'm going back to Jesus' garden soon."
His mother Chantal also told the paper: "Last week Jonathan had a very high temperature and was on his ventilator.
"This week it is lower. But you can't spend your life worrying.
"Every day is a gift. Jonathan is a gift."
