Bid to raise £80k to help lovely Lottie walk by herself
OP NEEDED IN USA FOR GIRL WITH CEREBRAL PALSY
LOOKING at this adorable, smiling face, you would never think anything was wrong.
But Lottie Simpson isn’t like most children her age. The threeyear-old, from Denton in Tameside, suffers from diplegic cerebral palsy. She can’t walk by herself.
Her condition causes spasticity, so when Lottie wants to stand up, the muscles in her legs and ankles tighten, meaning she needs a metal frame to help her walk.
In the future, it’s likely that Lottie will end up in a wheelchair. But a doctor in America is offering her the chance to change that and help her take her first steps unaided.
Lottie’s parents Vicky Waite and Tom Simpson say the surgery in St Louis could change their daughter’s life and are now appealing for help to raise the £80,000 needed.
Vicky, 37, told the M.E.N: “For Lottie, cerebral palsy only affects her legs. Her brain and her hands are okay, and she is hitting all the development milestones for her age. She just can’t walk. She can crawl, but she needs a walking frame to help her day-to-day around the house, at nursery, and when we are out. This surgery will let her walk without it, and it will also help her have a pain free life.”
The operation – known as selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) - will see surgeons cut the affected nerves in Lottie’s spine, freeing her from spasticity and pain.
It is not available on the NHS, only privately in the UK.
Despite this, Vicky said that even some of the most experienced surgeons in the country have only carried out around 30 of the procedures. The doctor they want to see in America has carried out more than 3,700.
Vicky, who worked at Tameside College for 13 years, described her daughter as a happy little girl who dotes on her younger sister Frankie, 21 months.
“Lottie is just brilliant,” she added. “She goes to nursery four mornings a week and she just gets on with it, she’s part of the group and is never left out. She’s got lot of friends and they look after her.
“At the moment Lottie doesn’t completely understand that she’s different. She’ll say to me, ‘I’ve been dancing with my friends today,’ and she’s been dancing with them in her walker.”
Vicky says that Lottie’s condition is linked to a bleed on the brain at just a few days old.
The youngster was born at 30 weeks after Vicky went into premature labour on her mum and stepdad’s wedding day.
Lottie was in the neonatal intensive care unit at Tameside Hospital for five weeks, and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when she was 18-months-old.
Over the coming months, the Lottie’s Little Legs fundraising campaign will be hosting a number of events to help raise cash.
There will be a family fun day and race night at The Bay Horse in Haugton Green on May 26.
For information on Lottie visit www.facebook.com/Lotties-Little-Legs-326236661173400. To donate visit www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/just4children/lottieslittlelegs.