I am doing a London to Paris bike ride on the 4th July 2013 over 3 days and 250 miles to raise money to help Johnny Pantry walk. Oh and by the way, this is a huge challenge for me! Anyone who knows me well will know how unfit I am and how hard the training will be. But I am up for the challenge! I've set myself a very high target of £5000 but if I can get anywhere near that, then I will have helped to change Johnny's life forever. 

My partner Paul is Johnny's uncle. Johnny is 5 years old and he loves riding his trike, swimming, eating as many sausages as he can and playing with his older brother, Lewis. He also happens to have cerebral palsy. 

Without his Mum and Dad, Johnny can’t get up or downstairs, get dressed, stand up or walk. He can’t stretch his hamstrings more than a 40 degree angle and the pain is getting a whole lot worse. 

When you can’t walk, you don’t weight bear through your hips and pushing the ball joint tightly into the socket so your hips dislocate (Johnny's hips are dislocated by 30 and 40%). Your tight muscles don’t end up growing at the same rate as your bones so you end up with shortened muscles, deformities and pain. 

Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) is a neurosurgical procedure which involves sectioning and cutting of some of the sensory nerve fibres that cause spasticity. The abnormal nerve rootlets are selected and then cut, leaving the normal rootlets intact. 

The results are permanent (spasticity or muscle tightness is irrevocably reduced) and when combined with an intensive physiotherapy post-op programme and for some children additional orthopaedic surgery to lengthen muscles, can result in life-changing mobility improvements. 

For children who can already walk, this can result in independent walking without an assistive device. For children like Johnny, who are wheelchair-bound, this will mean the difference between a wheelchair all day vs. the freedom of being able to take his own steps. 

Johnny's Mum and Dad, Jo and Mark Pantry need to raise £70,000 to get Johnny to America for this life changing operation and physio. 

Please help us to get Johnny walking.

http://www.johnnypantry.com

 

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