caitlin was born in 2002 with very complex health conditions, caitlin was very weak and was only given 24 hours to live, she was taken from our local hospital to a specialist heart ward at Alder Hey childrens hospital in liverpool , who diagnosed caitlin with complex heart conditions , multiple holes in the heart, aortic & mitral valve stenosis , hypoplastic Aortic arch, TAPVD , hypoplastic left lung pulmonary artery. caitlin needed urgent life saving surgery but was still too weak and the only thing that was keeping her alive was a medicine and a small line that was placed into the heart. caitlin fought for her life and became stronger and only at 9 days old she underwent her first 14 hour operation and came back fighting , during her surgery surgeons relized there was still alot of complex issues wrong with caitlin heart and she still would need further corrective surgery , caitlin recovered on the specialist heart ward fighting many infections, but at 5 months old caitlin was strong enough for her 2nd operation and further 15 hours in surgery , surgeons warned us that caitlins heart was still not fixed and will never be and she would probably have a short life and not live to the age 5 , caitlin fought everyday without a moan and always smiled, caitlin needed further surgery at the age of 6 but surgeons were unable to fix the heart but made her stable, caitlins heart defect is still ongoing and every hospital appointment her consultant always calls her a miracle and always says shes a fighter.

In 2003 doctors noticed a problem with her neck and spine and after numerous mri scans and xrays and muliple doctors input she was diagnosed with a rare bone disorder called Klipple-File sydrome her spine was fused from the top, after numrous back braces and specialist seating to try and straignten the spine there was no change to the spine nothing had worked. she was also diagnosed with Severe Kyphscolisis which is causing chronic pain and compromising caitlins lungs. There is no easy solution or operation to date caitlin now needs morphine and other strong pain relief to try and subside the pain and often long stays in hospitals, doctors have become incresingly concerned with caitlin ditoration and have had to make the decision to place her on palliative care .

Caitlins now 15 years of age, her condition has been slowly ditorating over the years, with continous chest infections, weight lose, chronic pain needing more and more strong pain relief. causing her to be depressed.

caitlin took a turn for the worse in may 2017 she needed to be ventilated and spent two weeks in intensive care unit at Alder hey. doctors told the family to prepare ourselfs for the worse and that she may not make it, caitlin continued to fight with her family by her side everyday, she became strong enough to return to our local hospital which she made very little progress everyday was a constent battle ,after 4 weeks at our local hospitals doctors became concerned and had no option to put caitlin on palliative care, they sat the family down and told us to start making memorys and they are now going to make caitlin comfortable as possible and tgede is nothing more they can do , she now needs to be pump tube fed by artificial feeds, needing oxygen 12 hours per day and under a further sleep study specialist have now decided that caitlin needs inavasive life support at home due to her retaining carbon dioxide, and not able to exhale properly, caitlin is currently using an electric wheelchair to get around due to her being so weak.

We recently had a visit by the occupational therapist, who have told us the bungalow we are in now is far too small for all caitlins medical needs, and equipement , they have told us they would need to build caitlin a bigger bedroom, plus and on-suite bathroom with a bath, hoists, grab rails, doors widening, ramps due to the bungalow not being wheelchair frienxly at present the local housing trust have tried to re-house us but have yet not found any suitable property , the property we require the housing trust only have 15 adapted housing and dont come around that often.

doctors are keen to get caitlin settled and comfortable soon as possible due to it being winter months and fearing caitlin may become subject to another serious chest infection and being too weak and under weight to fight it.

our local housing group have told us that they are unable to start any building work until all the funds are raised, we are currently roughly £10,000 + £489 arcitect fees after using the full DFG grant plus all our own savings, and having asked family members to help in anyway they can, we urgently need this build to get started so caitlin can live out the rest of her short life at home comfortble with her parents and family, and so her family can now make special memorys with her.

thankyou for taking your time to read caitlins life long battle, she really is a special unique young lady who also does her own fundraising currently working on family fundraiser herself to raise money to help other poorly children like herself she really is an inspirational young lady.

hope you can help us raise these funds for caitlin to make sure she gets all the specialist equipement and adaption she needs.

every little helps and its all very much appreciated.

Thankyou in advance

a

Upcoming events

Sponsored walk

Saturday 28th october 2017 caitlin, family and friends will complete a sponsored walk, walking 7.7miles from knutsford to northwich , caitlin will also try and complete the last 1 mile herself .

Caitlins mum and friends will be taking to the road again on the 2nd december in fancy dress walking 20 miles from chester city center - northwich

Please follow caitlins fight ❤️

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