This page is for our beautiful daughter Mila, who was born on 20th March 2016. Please read below to find out about Mila’s story.

Mila was born naturally at full term following a complicated birth. Due to the complications encountered during labour Mila was unwell after birth and was transferred to NICU at Addenbrookes where she spent the first 2 weeks of her life. Here she underwent many investigations, the most significant being an MRI scan of her head which showed abnormalities in her brain. The doctors at Addenbrookes told us that the result of Mila’s MRI indicated that she was at risk of having complications with her gross motor skills which would only become obvious to us as she develops.

Until she was 6 months old Mila developed the same as any other child, however it then became clear that she was in-fact going to experience difficulties with many of her everyday activities. Currently Mila is unable to sit-up unaided and therefore she cannot crawl or walk. She doesn’t have much control over her hands or arms making daily activities like playing and eating a struggle.

Mila was referred to Great Ormond street where, at 17 months old, she was diagnosed with Bilateral Dystonic Cerebral Palsy. She has since had further tests, including a videofluoroscopy where it was discovered that Mila aspirates fluids into her lungs when she drinks. In March Mila had an operation to insert a gastrostomy tube into her tummy in order to prevent any further aspiration and reduce the risk of long-term damage to her lungs. Mila now receives all of the fluids that she needs via this tube and no longer swallows liquids for herself.

When it became clear that Mila was going to face challenges in reaching her milestones we began to find specialist equipment that would help her to reach these goals and make her everyday life a little easier. At the moment Mila has specialist chairs, a standing frame and a walker; however there are still many more pieces of equipment that she needs to enable her to flourish. Although some of this equipment is funded by the NHS we will also need to purchase some by ourselves if Mila is to have the chance she deserves to learn how to sit, crawl and walk for herself. All of this, along with Mila’s weekly private physiotherapy sessions comes at a great cost which unfortunately we, as her parents, are just not able to fully cover.

We would love more than anything to have the ability to pay for all of the things that our baby girl needs which is why we really, really need you! We ask that if you have read this and would like to be a part of Mila’s journey to kindly make a donation on this page to go towards paying for her new equipment and ongoing physio. The saying every little helps has never meant more to us than it does now, and no matter how small a donation it really will be appreciated.

We promise to keep you updated with exactly what your donation has gone towards and just how life changing it has been for Mila and her family.

Thank you for reading. Kerry and Cass (Mila’s parents).

Please joins Mila’s group on facebook ‘Mila’s Journey’ to keep updated with her progress.

As some of you will be aware, Mila is heading to Boston in June 2019 for specialised therapy which we have now been able to fund with everybody’s incredible donations over the past couple of years to this page. However, when she gets back we would love for her to have some renewed funds to know that she can safely continue her hard work at her private physio centre back in the UK upon her return! We would also love to have the opportunity to take her back to America again next year so will be continuing to fundraise as much as possible this year to hopefully enable us to do so.