Both of our children were born 6 weeks prematurely and we know how lucky we were that both of them, although having to spend time in intensive care, have been healthy children. When I heard Ollie's story it really made me realise how lucky we were and that I should help in any way I could. Please read the following about why I am so touched by Ollie's story. His family's words say much more than I ever could:

Hello my name is Ollie Dodds and I am 3 years old. I have a mom, Hayley, Dad James, a wonderful big sister Imogen, and a baby brother Noah. 
I was born 7 weeks early much to my mommy and Daddy's surprise. I spent a little under 4 weeks on the neonatal ward in hospital. Mommy and daddy were always told that by my first birthday I would have caught up with other children my age and meet my mile stones. When I was about 10 months old and still hadn't rolled over by myself, and still had very little head control, my mommy started to worry and knew there was something wrong. After researching on the internet my family realised all my symptoms started matching that of cerebral palsy, a type of brain damage that affects motability.
Just before my 1st birthday I rolled over for the first time!! I was already now under a physiotherapist because of the concerns my family had, and they also thought I had cerebral palsy.
In October 2012 aged 18months, I finally got my cerebral palsy confirmed and we learnt I had 'spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy' this is where all four of my limbs are affected aswell as the 'overtone' in my trunk.
I have since had an MRI scan, x-rays, regular physiotherapy, currently still receiving targeted training, a 'kidwalk', I go to weekly hydro and rebound therapy, I have splints for my feet and legs, a customised pushchair seat, Botox injections in my legs, glasses for my squint which has also helped me gain a little more balance and I also attend a special needs nursery 3 times a week. With all of this amazing involvement and support I have come on leaps and bounds aswell as overcoming a nasty disease called kawasaki in 2013!
My mom now thinks after lots more research that I would benefit hugely from an operation called 'Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy' (SDR) 
The Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy Procedure.

SDR involves sectioning (cutting) of some of the sensory nerve fibers that come from the muscles and enter the spinal cord. This will make me less 'tight' due to the overtone in my muscles and gives me a huge massive chance to learn to sit without falling, stand up straight, crawl, and possibly walk!! But in general just be more comfortable, enable my body to catch up with my head...in my head I can play with my big sister in the park, I can play football with my daddy but my silly legs won't let me do that! So that's where you being on this page could change my life forever!! My mommy and daddy are desperate to get me over to America to meet Dr Park who is the very clever man who makes all this possible for children! But as we don't live in America this is at a huge cost.
The St Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri, USA is world renowned. Over the past twenty-four years its Centre for Cerebral Palsy Spasticity has performed over two thousand operations on patients from forty-two countries. It has published more than forty scientific articles on SDR and is the world leader in the field. There is no shortage of success stories. 
Not everybody with cerebral palsy will benefit from SDR so the Centre has strict entry criteria – all of which my mommy put forward on my behalf including footage of what I can and can't do by myself, x-rays and MRI images and we were one of those very lucky families that got to celebrate when we had an email to say YES I am a good candidate for SDR! :-)  
Depending on operating theatres and complications the procedure costs up to £36,000. Obviously I can’t fly to St Louis by myself so including expenses and contingencies the target for my Campaign is £65,000. We are hoping to be able to bring this down if we can get things like Flights donated along the way.

I am such a happy, cheeky boy with a huge sense of humour, I just want to be like other children my age. We think I deserve the best possible future and feel this is the next step in my journey to secure that future for me.

All donations to make mine and my family's ultimate wish come true is received with the biggest ever life changing 'thank you' we could possible give!!

Should we exceed the target amount(or if we do not raise enough funds, or if they cannot be used for any other reason) the funds raised will go to the general funds of Tree of Hope to assist other sick children.