The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
JOY FOR JENSON
Life- changing surgery for disabled five- year- old made possible thanks to campaign and a surprise £ 25,000 donation
Ahuge fundraising drive to pay for a disabled five- yearold from the city to have life- changing surgery has ended in success.
Gunthorpe youngster Jenson Ford is nowjust days away from flying out to St Louis, in the US, for an operation on his spine after kind- hearted members of the public helped raise £ 55,000 in a matter of months to fund the proceedure and trip.
The Norwood Primary School pupil was diagnosed with having a form of cerebral palsy when he was just eightmonths- old.
It has left him with little use of his right hand side – effects which will get worse as he gets older.
The proce-dure, which i s difficult to secure in the UK, will mean Jenson will beable to walk without the need of leg splints or have to endure intensive physiotherapy for the rest of his life.
The family’s fundraising target was reached last week thanks to a £ 25,000 donation which, on request of the benefactor, is being kept anonymous. Jenson’s mum Katie Ford ( 32), of Ullswater Avenue, Gunthorpe, said: “I was a bit gobsmacked and overwhelmed. I needed to take half- an- hourtopull myself together. Once the shock had worn off I was elated, over the moon.
“It was a massive relief.”
Time was a factor for Jenson’s parents in the fundraising drive, which waslaunched in mid- October last year.
Some £ 37,000 had to be raised by February 25 to pay for the procedure and then an-
Katie Ford ( 32)
“I wasabit gobsmacked and overwhelmed.”
other £ 18,000 by March23for flights and accomodation for five weeks.
MrsFordsaid:“I wastrying to be positive. I kept saying to myself ‘ we are going to do it, we are going to do it’.”
From t he c a mpaign’s launch on October 19, it took just 136 day store ach the fundraising target - about £ 400 a day.
Mrs Ford said: “The support we have had has been amazing, from, obviously, friends and family, but also from people we just don’t know.”
Sheadded: “Wehavemade some great friends.”
Jenson is due to fly out for the operation next Saturday.
Called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy, it will see surgeons access sensory nerves in his spine and test them for a level of spasticity. The ones most affected are then cut.
Hewill receive physiotherapy for up to two years, butit is hoped he will be walking with greater ease than currently within six weeks.
Mrs Ford said: “I’m excited, but also very apprehensive as with any surgery something could go wrong, but you have just got to not think of those risks and think of the benefits.”
Jenson, she said, is less troubled, however.
She said: “He takes it all in his stride, really.”