Holly Randall
Holly's Charity Mission - a month in Mbeya, Tanzania
Fundraising for Able Child Africa
Story
In 2017 I submitted an application for a competition at work where you could either Give A Dream or Live A Dream. I had absolutely no idea that I would win It! My application was to Give A Dream and so on 14th January 2018 I will be heading to Mbeya in Tanzania to work with an incredible charity who work with disabled children, their families and community.
My Story:
In July 2015 I had a simple case of backache and I went to my local osteopath to see whether he could straighten me out. Unfortunately, it was a visit gone wrong and I wish I'd never bothered going! During my treatment a disc was pushed from my spine and it damaged one of the nerves in my back and gradually things went downhill and I hadn't realised at the time, what challenges were on the horizon. I was suffering with severe convulsions which mirrored something akin to an epileptic seizure. I had no idea what was going on. I went to an NHS walk in centre and they just told me to go and take some strong painkillers and rest, and they also gave me some anti-inflammatories to take. They said that I should pop along to my GP the following day when it opened (it was a Sunday) as I may need an MRI and they don't have that kind of thing at the memorial hospital where I was.
The next day, I went to see my GP and within a couple of minutes, he carried out some physical examinations on me and told my father and I that he needed to call the neurology team at Charing Cross Hospital. We waited in the reception area and once he had spoken to them he called us back in. He told me that he suspected I had a condition called Cauda Equina Syndrome. He had spoken to the neurosurgeon and I had to go to hospital immediately and that he would arrange an ambulance for me. My dad had his car so we told him we would make our own way there.
When we arrived they were waiting for me and I was whisked straight from the waiting area in A&E into the CDU ward and they carried out some more tests on me, took a load of bloods and sent me for an MRI (I'd never had one before and was in that bloody thing for 20 minutes!). It was only when they did a weird needle test up my right leg, that I realised my leg was numb and that I couldn't feel the skin. That's when the reality of the situation hit me in the face with a clenched fist.
The Registrar told me that the MRI confirmed my GPs suspicions and they were taking me to have emergency spinal surgery to remove the part of the disc which had been pushed from between my vertebrae. There were complications and I had to undergo another spinal operation exactly a week later. They had punctured the membrane containing my spinal fluid, which was leaking into my back so they had to glue that too - great!
I will be disabled for the rest of my life and use a stick to walk. I will always be on random neurological medication and am prescribed morphine etc. In addition, I need to have more major surgery in the near future, two in my spine (Fusion Surgery and the insertion of a Spinal Stimulator), and another on my bladder. I have not let my newfound disability get in the way of things and carry on with my life as best I can whilst holding down a full time job which I was able to return to gradually after a few months.
This is why my application was to Give A Dream. In so many countries around the world, disabled people don't get anywhere near the level of support and extensive treatment I have had, both physically and psychologically and I want to be able to do something to make a difference and show people that they should never let a disability get in the way of their goals, and that they should be treated equally and not discriminated against, just because they are a little different. AbleChildAfrica is a UK based charity working with and alongside partner organisations in Africa to achieve equal rights for disabled children and young people. They are leading UK charity working exclusively with and for disabled children in Africa. The children they work with are some of the world's most vulnerable children.
I will be spending one month with a charity called CST (Child Support Tanzania) working alongside their Founder and Director, Noelah Msuya in Mbeya. Below is an extract from their website where you can learn more about the challenges they face.
You can look at it as a sponsorship, or a donation, but whatever you do, please dig deep! Anything you could give to these two amazing charities would be so hugely appreciated by me, AbleChildAfrica and CST!
*** THANK YOU ***
http://www.ablechildafrica.org/our-partners/child-support-tanzania/
CST: Many children and families in Mbeya are living in poverty, often exacerbated by disability, HIV/AIDS and high mortality rates. Services for disabled children are severely lacking and poorly resourced. Although primary education is free in Tanzania, disabled students often do not develop the basic early learning skills needed to succeed in this
environment. CST provides inclusive ECE for children living in extreme poverty and those with disabilities or complex health needs to ensure they receive critical foundation skills needed to succeed in mainstream primary school. CST brings early childhood education (ECE ) and inclusion to an area where such a service has not previously been available and where the students it reaches would otherwise have no formal early educational opportunities. It is the only centre of its kind within a 1000 mile radius.
CST also supports and empowers parents through its parent support group and uses a Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) approach to reach out to the community, mobilising them to support CST's activities and help challenge the barriers in society faced by their disabled students. CST currently serves approximately 120 children, including those with physical, hearing and vision impairments and learning difficulties.
My Story:
In July 2015 I had a simple case of backache and I went to my local osteopath to see whether he could straighten me out. Unfortunately, it was a visit gone wrong and I wish I'd never bothered going! During my treatment a disc was pushed from my spine and it damaged one of the nerves in my back and gradually things went downhill and I hadn't realised at the time, what challenges were on the horizon. I was suffering with severe convulsions which mirrored something akin to an epileptic seizure. I had no idea what was going on. I went to an NHS walk in centre and they just told me to go and take some strong painkillers and rest, and they also gave me some anti-inflammatories to take. They said that I should pop along to my GP the following day when it opened (it was a Sunday) as I may need an MRI and they don't have that kind of thing at the memorial hospital where I was.
The next day, I went to see my GP and within a couple of minutes, he carried out some physical examinations on me and told my father and I that he needed to call the neurology team at Charing Cross Hospital. We waited in the reception area and once he had spoken to them he called us back in. He told me that he suspected I had a condition called Cauda Equina Syndrome. He had spoken to the neurosurgeon and I had to go to hospital immediately and that he would arrange an ambulance for me. My dad had his car so we told him we would make our own way there.
When we arrived they were waiting for me and I was whisked straight from the waiting area in A&E into the CDU ward and they carried out some more tests on me, took a load of bloods and sent me for an MRI (I'd never had one before and was in that bloody thing for 20 minutes!). It was only when they did a weird needle test up my right leg, that I realised my leg was numb and that I couldn't feel the skin. That's when the reality of the situation hit me in the face with a clenched fist.
The Registrar told me that the MRI confirmed my GPs suspicions and they were taking me to have emergency spinal surgery to remove the part of the disc which had been pushed from between my vertebrae. There were complications and I had to undergo another spinal operation exactly a week later. They had punctured the membrane containing my spinal fluid, which was leaking into my back so they had to glue that too - great!
I will be disabled for the rest of my life and use a stick to walk. I will always be on random neurological medication and am prescribed morphine etc. In addition, I need to have more major surgery in the near future, two in my spine (Fusion Surgery and the insertion of a Spinal Stimulator), and another on my bladder. I have not let my newfound disability get in the way of things and carry on with my life as best I can whilst holding down a full time job which I was able to return to gradually after a few months.
This is why my application was to Give A Dream. In so many countries around the world, disabled people don't get anywhere near the level of support and extensive treatment I have had, both physically and psychologically and I want to be able to do something to make a difference and show people that they should never let a disability get in the way of their goals, and that they should be treated equally and not discriminated against, just because they are a little different. AbleChildAfrica is a UK based charity working with and alongside partner organisations in Africa to achieve equal rights for disabled children and young people. They are leading UK charity working exclusively with and for disabled children in Africa. The children they work with are some of the world's most vulnerable children.
I will be spending one month with a charity called CST (Child Support Tanzania) working alongside their Founder and Director, Noelah Msuya in Mbeya. Below is an extract from their website where you can learn more about the challenges they face.
You can look at it as a sponsorship, or a donation, but whatever you do, please dig deep! Anything you could give to these two amazing charities would be so hugely appreciated by me, AbleChildAfrica and CST!
*** THANK YOU ***
http://www.ablechildafrica.org/our-partners/child-support-tanzania/
CST: Many children and families in Mbeya are living in poverty, often exacerbated by disability, HIV/AIDS and high mortality rates. Services for disabled children are severely lacking and poorly resourced. Although primary education is free in Tanzania, disabled students often do not develop the basic early learning skills needed to succeed in this
environment. CST provides inclusive ECE for children living in extreme poverty and those with disabilities or complex health needs to ensure they receive critical foundation skills needed to succeed in mainstream primary school. CST brings early childhood education (ECE ) and inclusion to an area where such a service has not previously been available and where the students it reaches would otherwise have no formal early educational opportunities. It is the only centre of its kind within a 1000 mile radius.
CST also supports and empowers parents through its parent support group and uses a Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) approach to reach out to the community, mobilising them to support CST's activities and help challenge the barriers in society faced by their disabled students. CST currently serves approximately 120 children, including those with physical, hearing and vision impairments and learning difficulties.