Baking helps Samuel Hinkson overcome Tourette Syndrome

RHIANNA Mc KENZIE

Samuel Hinkson, affectionately known by his friends and family as Sammy, is, for the most part, your average 14-year-old boy. He loves spending time with his family and their dog Stella, he enjoys a game of football at the Oval with his friends, and he passes the time during vacations with his cousins at sleepovers and playing video game.

Unlike most teenagers, however, Sammy struggles with Tourette Syndrome, a condition that affects his nervous system causing sudden and uncontrolled twitches, movements, or sounds.

While it was hard for him and his family to understand his condition when it first presented itself at the age of eight, he has since learned how to live with it, manage his symptoms, and boost his confidence.

One of the ways he has been able to do this is through his love for cooking and baking. At an early age, Sammy would spend time with his grandmother, Caryl Hinkson, in the kitchen, baking everything from pancakes to brownies and cookies.

“Every afternoon, there’s a little gathering out there on the bench (near the family home) and he would go out and offer everyone cookies and got the idea that we could charge,” said Caryl.

“He started charging $5 per cookie and, when he realised he could make money, he started making more.”

She said soon after, a neighbour loved Sammy’s cookies so much she ordered a dozen, and his business took off from there.

Sammy’s mother, Michelle Hinkson, decided to name the business One Tough Cookie to acknowledge her son’s struggle with Tourette’s. “We always told him he was one tough cookie with all of his challenges,” she said.

Sammy said he started making cookies with his grandmother using store-bought packs from the supermarket. “We made cookies to sell around the avenue,” he told Newsday. Eventually, granny would teach him a home-made recipe, which is what they use today.

He listed the ingredients for his cookies, including eggs, butter, baking powder, sugar, and vanilla essence. “Oh, and chocolate chips. The most important part,” he said with a smile.

Although he only sells chocolate chips now, he said he would love to expand with other flavours and ingredients, such as cookie dough and M&Ms.

Sammy has big dreams of one day exporting his brand to different countries. “Cookies expire quickly. I have to find out how to do that.”

He said as much as he would like to spend his money on new games, his parents are teaching him accounting. “I can’t spend it. I put it back into the business. My parents taught me that.”

Caryl joked that he shared with her his plan to build a 19-bedroom house with his money. Sammy said one room would be for his games and another just for football.

Hinkson also sells to his friends in school, taking a dozen cookies every week to sell to them.

His cookies are also available in some stores, including Blooms Imports in Diego Martin, Superpharm, and Starlite Pharmacy.

Hinkson is the third of four children, and all his siblings play a role in his business. His eldest brother, Levi, handles his Facebook page and assists with deliveries. His older brother, Shay, holds the coveted position of taste tester, and sadly, younger sister Ana was fired a few months ago because her delivery fee was too high.

Joking about the incident, Michelle said Caryl and her father, who lives abroad, handle the accounts. “It’s brought us all together (and) keeps him busy. It gives him something to look forward to.

“It was never a money-making kind of thing. It was therapy. I always say, if he can’t get a job, he has this business.”

Living with Tourettes

Hinkson’s mother recalls when he first began showing symptoms and the concerns she and her husband, Sean Hinkson, had.

“It’s not very common, so it’s not very well known, and it can be frightening because you don’t know.”

She said when the symptoms started it was a very confusing time. “We don’t know what was going on. It took a good while before we were confident what it was. We understood the nature of it (but) we didn’t know what to do about it at first. It’s not easy to deal with, for him, for us, for other people.”

Michelle said there is not a lot of support in Trinidad and Tobago for the condition and she only knows of two other cases in the country. “We’re trying to build a foundation to get help for other people.” She said she and the other parents of children with the diagnosis are also concerned there may be other children in the country with it and don’t know because they have not been properly diagnosed.

She said she remembers when he first presented with symptoms. “It was Easter. He was playing a game and a gamer was cursing. He just started saying these words. We don’t curse in the house.”

She said it eventually escalated and he had to be pulled from school. “We homeschooled him for a bit (then) we took him to Miami. My dad was in the states. He was diagnosed there.”

She said his symptoms can look like “little things that are odd” but he can’t control.

She said in Miami, he was taught a new therapy technique specifically designed for children with Tourette’s called Cognitive Behavioural Intervention for Tics (CBIT).

She said while the therapy has been helpful, it was still a challenge getting him to control his tics. “It took a lot of practise,” she said.

“He is a very intelligent child. He’s very good at things like math and science (and) he’s very affectionate. He has the idea in his head but can’t always get it out adequately, so it frustrates him.”

Michelle said he has improved so much, and the family is very proud of how far he has come.

“He’s good at explaining it. If he goes to football, he tells them he has Tourette’s and he’ll tell them to just ignore it.”

She said children don’t notice his tics that much and have never been a problem, however, over the years they have had to deal with disgruntled parents. “Parents are the ones who will say something. Teachers, mostly, were co-operative and understanding.”

She said he always struggled in school and has an aide who has been instrumental in his development. He is now in a small homeschooling programme which has been a much better fit for him.

While Sammy knows his way around the kitchen, he also has a special place in his heart for football and hopes to play professionally one day.

“I want to be a (professional) goalkeeper. I used to play with my friend who went away to Ireland. His name is Finn. We used to play in his backyard with a bunch of his friends.”

He said, before the pandemic, he used to play in the Oval and participated in tournaments.

His favourite team, he said, is Everton although he admitted they don’t win many games.