Surgery fundraising bid to help daughter walk

Olivia relies on a wheelchair due to her cerebral palsy

A family is fundraising for surgery which they hope will allow their five-year-old daughter to take her first steps.

Olivia, from Woodside in Telford, has bilateral spastic cerebral palsy which causes tightness and pain in her lower body and means she needs a wheelchair.

She has been referred for Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR), but the level she requires is not funded on the NHS.

Her mother, Siobhan Glynn, said the surgery would be a "dream come true".

"It would mean everything," she added.

"Our one big goal is to see her walking and take her first steps, to get rid of her pain, take away the muscle stiffness, it would be a dream come true for us all."

Due to complications with her heart rate, Olivia was born prematurely at 28 weeks and spent the first 10 weeks of her life at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham and the next three months at home on oxygen.

Olivia goes to a mainstream school and is "bright" and "independent", her mother said

Ms Glynn said they later noticed she was not meeting developmental milestones and at 18 months old an MRI scan showed she had cerebral palsy.

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Now under specialists at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, she has been referred for SDR, which cuts nerves to stop abnormal signals to muscles, but funding is not provided for the surgery she needs.

Olivia was born prematurely and spent the first 10 weeks of her life in hospital

To have the surgery funded by the NHS children must be aged between three and nine and already able to walk.

A spokesperson for NHS England in the Midlands said: "The criteria for this complex operation is based on extensive clinical evidence, and aims to ensure that children with cerebral palsy are not exposed to the significant risks of surgery unless they are likely to benefit from the procedure."

Olivia's family hope to raise £60,000 to cover the surgery, intense physiotherapy afterwards and any equipment she may then require.

"We can't wait to get started and get the ball rolling properly," Ms Glynn said.