My Lioness dream
England stars help heart girl win football contract aged 13
ENGLAND’S Lionesses have scored again – this time for a budding footy star who feared mini-stroke symptoms from a hole in her heart would end her career.
Just a year ago Cerys Edgson, 13, was having suicidal thoughts after the NHS refused her surgery to fix her condition. She had to give up playing as even getting to school was sometimes impossible through headaches, changes in her vision, loss of speech and motor weakness on her left side.
Her mum Kirsty, 43, quit her counselling job so she could care for her.
Cerys says: “I was so sad I couldn’t play football I started started self-harming and thought of suicide.” At her lowest ebb, Cerys was befriended by England U-23 and former Everton team captain Dani Turner, who visited her and urged her to keep fighting.
As news of her plight spread, other Lionesses rallied around. Talented Cerys was diagnosed with a ‘patent foramen ovale’ – a hole in the heart that should close after birth – after suffering an extreme migraine and muscle weakness in June 2020. Although surgery existed to fix it, the family was told Cerys could only have it on the NHS if she was proven to have had a stroke.
Kirsty, 43, of Cheadle, Greater Manchester, says: “We just had to wait for the worst to happen – her having a stroke that cardiologists said could damage her brain and even prove fatal.
“She was put on beta blockers to slow her heart rate, and anticonvulsant medication. It was so frustrating. She’d help anyone. She had her head shaved to fundraise for a friend with leukaemia. But she couldn’t get help herself.”
Her family began fundraising for a private op. Then football star Dani found out about her plight because her brother went to Cerys’ school.
Cerys said: “One morning my mum said I had a surprise.
“It was Dani on my doorstep. We ended up playing a bit of football. She gave me a load of signed Everton kit. Her visit gave me new hope.” Kirsty added: “Dani was a godsend. She even started taking Cerys to Everton games.”
Then, a year ago, came even more good news. Cerys’ cardiologist said tests showed her mini-stroke symptoms were not just caused by migraines, but were actually recurring strokes.
It meant she qualified for an NHS op last August. Soon afterwards, another local Lioness, England Euro final winner Jill Scott, invited her to her coffee shop – and the youngster met her Euro teammate Demi Stokes.
Cerys’ recovery went well and Jill’s football academy partner Sam Brown offered her private coaching. Now Cerys has signed up with Stoke City after a trial. Sam said: “She has a chance to be a Lioness. She has the ability and dedication.”
Kirsty said: “We just can’t believe how dramatic the turnaround in Cerys’s life has been. She’s been reborn.
“We can’t thank Dani, Jill, Sam, and Stoke City enough.” Cerys, who has two sisters and whose dad Ian, 42, works in IT, said: “I went to to see the Euro final at Wembley.
“Now my dream is to play for England one day.”
I was so sad I couldn’t play I even thought of suicide
CERYS EDGSON ON NIGHTMARE ILLNESS