Wiltshire siblings to cycle 100 miles for charity

Maya's symptoms included painful eyes and a swollen forehead

A young girl who suffered from a rare condition is to cycle 100 miles with her brother to raise awareness of the illness.

Maya, from Calne in Wiltshire, was diagnosed with pott's puffy tumour at the end of last year, a rare complication of sinusitis.

The nine-year-old's painful eyes were initially misdiagnosed as a urine infection until the symptoms worsened.

Maya's mum Vikki said the challenge would help "turn it into a positive".

Maya and her brother Oscar, 10, will complete the ride during weekends in November with their dad Rich.

The family were given tickets to the premiere of the Matilda film as a "thank you" for supporting the charity

They hope to raise £500 for Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity, which looked after Maya when she was ill.

Vikki said the nurse the charity assigned to Maya "became her guardian angel".

"Every time we'd be on the phone to Jane she would just reassure us. She was just an absolute lifesaver," she added.

The family want to raise awareness of the condition so that it is more easily recognised by families and medical practitioners.

Maya first began feeling unwell during the half-term holidays in October 2021.

'Kept getting worse'

"She complained of a headache, and we'd been to a disco, so I didn't think much of it. I just thought it was too many white lights and music," explained Vikki.

"Over the next few weeks things just kept getting worse, and she kept complaining about her eyes and kept saying that her eyes were watering, that they were hurting.

"One day she just wouldn't even get out of bed. She just wanted to be in bed with her hands over her eyes."

Maya and her mum have already raised more than £2,500 for the charity by sharing Maya's story online

Maya was initially misdiagnosed as having a urine infection and given antibiotics but her symptoms soon worsened, including a swollen forehead.

She was diagnosed with sinusitis but the infection had spread to her brain, causing an abscess known as pott's puffy tumour, resulting in a seven-hour operation.

Professor Kathreena Kurian from the University of Bristol said: "Pott's puffy tumour (PTT) is a frontal subperiosteal abscess associated with underlying frontal osteomyelitis (a painful bone infection).

She described the condition as "so rare" with only around 300 cases published in medical journals.

Vikki said getting to meet the stars at a film premiere was "just unbelievable" after what they had been through

Vikki said Maya is now doing "amazingly well" but still finds it difficult to concentrate "and has some ongoing difficulties".

They hope the cycling challenge will help turn their bad memories "into a positive".