Thanks for taking the time to visit Lyla's JustGiving page.

A few of Lyla's family and friends asked us (Luke and Kiley, her parents) what she would like for her birthday so we decided to ask her and this was her response...

"I want everyone to bring two buckets of water to my birthday party since they can carry one in each hand. And they need to make sure that the buckets have lids on them so the water doesn't spill. The lids are very important."

As you can imagine, we were confused by this and had to ask her what the water was for. To which she replied, "So we can send the water to the kids in Africa that have dirty water and no water to drink."

After a few long and confusing conversations she explained that she had seen the kids with dirty water on TV and she was very worried about them. She now seems to understand that we can't actually send buckets of water to the kids in Africa so we explained that we could set up a website for people to donate money to help those kids get some clean water to drink. She understand she won't get any gifts for her birthday (except a Ben 10 watch that her daddy is making - apparently!) We will make sure she sees the donations on the website and we'll keep a record for her and this will be her 'gift'.

She was so excited that we could help the kids get water. This is something that obviously had a big impact on her when she saw the advertisement on TV and she seems very worried about it so we're happy to go along with this and help her support such a good cause.

Please don't bring gifts to her party as well - she understands that she is asking for donations and won't get gifts to unwrap. We'll make sure she still gets gifts from us (I've already been shopping) so she won't end up with nothing to open on her birthday.

Thanks for your help and for taking the time to read Lyla's story about how she wants to help.

Luke and Kiley

PS - the WaterAid advert that she saw is in the gallery on this page if you want to have a watch yourself and see why it had such an impact on her and concerned her so much.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

‘A bright future begins with a healthy start. By sponsoring me you can help WaterAid deliver life and make sure no child arrives into the world without the clean, safe water they need.

Every £1 donated to WaterAid's Deliver Life appeal between 10 November and 10 February will be doubled by the UK Government.’

- WaterAid