On Friday 1st November 2024, Tom, Jack, Luke, Owen, Alex, Becca and Susannah will participate in the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for Tom's daughter, Myla, who requires therapy and specialist equipment to give her the best chance of living a healthy, happy and independent life. We will start at Ben Nevis, travel to Scafell Pike and finish at Snowdon - all in 24 hours. Please read Myla's story below.

Myla is a funny and caring little girl with a huge personality from Uppingham in Rutland. Her huge smile is infectious and she is the happiest little soul. She loves dancing, books, being outdoors and lots of sensory messy play. Myla is 20 months from Rutland and has been diagnosed with Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy. This page is to help raise vital funds to support Myla in having the therapy and specialist equipment she so desperately needs.

Myla was born in December 2022, via emergency c-section with forceps at 41+4 weeks. After weeks of early labour signs, being left extremely anaemic with no sign of a transfusion or induction and high foetal heart rate, I was finally listened to and it was told I needed emergency surgery. Sadly, Myla was left in distress for some time whilst in the womb due to a lack of care and intervention, resulting in a chronic hypoxic injury to the brain. This means her brain was starved of oxygen during the lead up to birth.

When Myla was finally born, her face was extremely swollen, potentially due to her positioning in the womb, to the point where she could not close her mouth to feed and was in pain. Myla spent around 4 days in transitional care where she was NG tube fed to allow the swelling to go down and ensure she could feed before being sent home as everything was ‘normal’.

Fast forward around 6 months and Myla was not showing signs of meeting milestones. She was unable to hold her head stable and appeared quite floppy. She showed no signs of rolling or sitting and was struggling with sitting safely in a high chair for weaning. Eventually after being told by various health visitors, GPs and other professionals that Myla ‘needed time’, it was agreed for her to have an MRI under general anaesthetic to determine if there was anything else going on given her birth history.

The results showed that she had deep rooted brain damage on both sides of her brain, and that she has cerebral palsy that will affect her fine and gross motor and speech. Myla still cannot sit, stand or walk. She struggles with coordinating her limbs and with excessive saliva which can affect her feeding.

Early intervention for children with brain damage is so vital to allow new pathways to be formed in the brain around the damage, when it is still so rapidly developing, yet the NHS is so underfunded it does not provide anywhere near enough support to provide this.

The only way that Myla can get regular and high quality therapy such as physio and speech and language is to have private therapy. She also requires specialist equipment such as seating and a walker.

Myla needs constant care from her mum, so we have had had to reduce to one full time wage. Disability and carers allowance do not replace a full time wage yet Myla so desperately needs regular therapy to reach her potential. Therefore, we are relying on the kindness and generosity of friends, family and strangers to support Just4Children in providing Myla with the therapy and equipment she so desperately needs and deserves after the services we trusted have sadly failed her.

Thank you for taking the time to read Myla’s story and for all of your support. She is the most determined and resilient little girl and your support is appreciated more than you will ever know.

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