My name is Tracy McKenzie, and I am raising money to allow two very special young people to live their best life and get the treatment they need in order to do that. So on  8th July 2023 (exactly three months from the day I go live with this page) I am going to cycle about 16 miles from Caernarfon to the base of Mount Snowdon, climb the 1085m Mount Snowdon then when I get back down I am going to kayak around Llyn Padarn which is approximately 2.5miles and climbing the rigging of the Cutty Sark plus other events.

I have known Zak for almost 15 years and Summer her entire life, Zak is friends with my nephew and Summer is friends with my niece. I also am a volunteer with Ability Shetland and both children access different clubs run by Ability Shetland which allows them to access various activities and sessions. I have also started to work with Summer to introduce her to sports such as All Ability Rugby. Allowing her to be part of a sporting team and make new friends.

Both children have complex medical conditions which will require them to have intensive physical therapy throughout their entire lives and this is where Just 4 Children help out. Just 4 children help children gain access to treatment and equipment that they would not be able to afford otherwise. 

Zak and Summer need access to services such as CK Intensives and rest bite to certain facilities that are familiar with their conditions to flourish and grow as they should.

So are who Zak and Summer:

Zak and Summer are two fantastic kids who deserve the same opportunities as other children their age, however at this current time they are limited in what they can currently do due to lack of local equipment and local resources. They need access to specialised rest bite services which are dedicated to their unique medical conditions and also access to CK Intensives - Specialist Neuromuscular Strength and Conditioning for people with disabilities.

Zak is aged 16. He was born 6 weeks premature in 2006. From a young age, he struggled to reach milestones and had general ill health throughout his early years. Five years later, in 2011, Zak was diagnosed with a rare brain malformation, which was a neuronal migration disorder called Polymictogyria. A neuronal migration disorder develops before birth, whilst the brain is still developing, and is caused by nerve cells being unable to migrate to the appropriate area of the brain. A partnering factor of polymicrogyria is epilepsy.

Zak started having seizures when he was 10 years old. The Form of Zaks epilepsy is drug resistant, so there is no way of controlling his seizures with medication, and he has had trails with every medication available to him, but none have prove effective. Zak tends to have seizures everyday with the odd day where he has none.

Zak has also been diagnosed with Functional Neurologic Disorder (FDN) where he has seizures that are non-epileptic, which present themselves differently than epileptic seizures. He also struggles with Worster Drought Syndrome which is a form of cerebal palsy that affect the muscles of the throat and mouth. As a result of this Zak Struggles to eat certain foods or drink certain fluids as it could cause him to choke. It also means Zak had very delayed speech and used sign language for the most of his early years until he started making improvements.

Summer is aged 7. she was born in May 2015,but only got discharged form hospital six months after she was born. She had many physical complications following her birth which include a neuronal migration disorder and a brain condition called periventricular leukomalacia, which has caused Summer to be partially sighted. Along with this diagnosis, it also came to light that she has Arthrogryposis Multiple Congenita (AMC) which affects her joints, bones and muscles. The knock-on effect of this is that Summer is unable to lift her arms or stand by herself, meaning she is being held back in her development. She also has a locked jaw due to AMC and scoliosis in her spine.

Summer has had dozens of surgeries over the past seven years, due to her own extremely unique physiology. Summer has two feeding tubes, one from her stomach, a gastrostomy, and one from hew bowel, a jejunostomy. Summer has these tubes due to the anatomy of her stomach, as her stomach is unable to drain and empty food through into the bowel which also means she persistently vomits and struggles to gain weight. Summer always requires one on one support with every aspect of her life.

There are a multitude of opportunities that the kids would benefit from. One of the important activities which is a massive benefit to Summers physical health is therapy from CK Intensives. This type of therapy is specialised neuromuscular strength and conditioning, which after only a week, proved to help Summer to progress with weight baring through her legs and learning coordination through her arms. The cost of not only the therapy itself, but also the cost of accommodation is unfortunately unaffordable, so regular blocks of therapy would be unrealistic to afford. 

The goal is also hopefully give Zak and Summer access to private physiotherapy as they are both in a lot of physical pain.

There us also a multitude of different types of equipment that would benefit both Zak and Summer, including a TheraPlate, a therapy bench, I-Joy Ride and an electric horse-riding machine.