Cerebral Palsy: Family's bid to raise £20k to help boy walk

Edward often wakes up in the night in pain due to the tightness of his muscles.

A fundraiser has been set up for an eight-year-old boy with cerebral palsy to help fund a procedure not available to him on the NHS.

Edward, from Telford, was born with spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy that affects movement.

The operation would involve cutting spinal cord nerves that contribute to muscle stiffness in lower limbs.

Despite the pain Edward is in, his father Mark Ironmonger said he is "always smiling".

The family said Edward loves playing with his cousins and friends and hopes that Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy surgery will enable him to interact with them on the same level.

He spent the first three weeks of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit after being born eight weeks premature.

Due to his underdeveloped lungs, he was put on a ventilator and underwent a blood transfusion, but developed sepsis. He was also born with his skull fused together.

Because of the experiences Edward went through as a baby, he was left with brain damage which caused spastic diplegia.

The condition affects muscle control in his legs and arms, making them stiff and contracted, often waking him up in the middle of the night in pain.

Edward is a happy boy who is "always smiling" said his family

The little boy's father hopes the procedure at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool will make life much easier for Edward, as his muscle tightness will get worse the more he grows.

"We aren't getting the procedure just on the off-chance he will walk," said Mr Ironmonger.

"The main aim is to make him more comfortable," he added.

The NHS follows a Gross Motor Function Classification System to decide which child is able to receive the procedure through the NHS.

Currently, children who come under level two or three are able to get the surgery on the NHS; Edward is categorised as level four due to his limited movement and being unable to walk.

The family is using GoFundMe to raise £20,000 for the procedure and the aftercare.