Finley has Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy which affects all 4 limbs. He is on the GMFCS level 4/5. Finley is one of twins born at 29 weeks. They were both in hospital for 9 long weeks and he had it tough from the get go. Finley was born not breathing, pale and floppy but they got him breathing again after 5 minutes.

We were told around 4 weeks old that Finley had Bilateral Periventricular Leukomalacia (brain damage). Then around 8 months old he was diagnosed with Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy.

Finley is not able to walk and run around with his twin brother or friends. Finley is highly dependent on his family, friends and teachers to get though day to day basics, including eating, drinking and changing. Finley sometimes gets very frustrated as he is unable to do all the things his twin brother does, basic things we all take for granted.

Finley was battling against spasticity, that was prevents him from being able to control his posture, arms and legs. The spasticity was causing painful spasms and stiffness throughout the day and causes sleepless nights. Finley had an operation called SDR (Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy) which removed almost all of the spasticity from his lower limbs. The outcome of this operation was life changing for Finley. He now sleeps a lot better throughout the night, toilet trained and all of the spams and stiffness has gone. He is no longer crying out in pain!!

The surgery involved cutting the sensory nerve fibres in the spinal cord that was sending incorrect signals between Finleys brain and muscles. Without this operation the spasticity will get worse as he grows, which will cause more problems in the future and possible deformities. Due to Finley being a GMCFS Level 4/5 the operation was NOT funded by the NHS! We had the operation The Great Portland Hospital in London.

Now we have done the hard part (operation) we are looking to have fun and raising money for Finley's future. Finley is always going to be affected by cerebral Palsy and as parents we never want him to go without things he needs. Physio will for ever be on going to improve his progress and as he is growing we will always need to keep replacing specialist equipment that no long fits him.

Our fund raising will include fun days, kick arounds, parties and any other crazy ideas people decide to throw at us!

Please join us on Fantastic Finley's Facebook page where we will give updates on Finley's progression and fundraising events.

Without your amazing support and help from everyone involved in helping Just4Children fundraise for Finley and the incredibly bitter sweet donation from the Beautiful Lydia and her family, None of this would have been possible. Thank you for taking the time to read Fantastic Finleys story and thank you for your support.

Love from,

The Gardiner Family

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