This January I am taking part in ”RED JANUARY” which involves running at least a mile every day in January to fundraise for Mia Brown.

My lovely friend and running buddy, Jo Brown, has been fundraising for the past few months to help raise money to take her daughter to Turkey to undergo vital surgery to correct a curvature in her spine caused by scolisios.

Mia was diagnosed in 2016 with scolisios this causes the spine to twist and curve, if left untreated it will start to crush her internal organs. Despite wearing a back brace for 23 hours a day her spine has continued to rapidly curve. Mia finds life extremely restricting wearing the brace, she finds it difficult to, eat, sleep and sometimes breath. It causes her anxiety issues with her body image and low self esteem.

Without surgery Mia’s spine will continue to curve and any damage done to her organs will be irreversible.

The surgery Mia needs is called VBT (vertebral body tethering) and is currently unavailable in Northern Ireland. Mia has been offered the chance to have VBT in Turkey at an estimated cost of €32k, we have already met the surgeon who is keen to operate ASAP as VBT has to be done before Mia stops growing. So time is against us.

As soon as this target is met, Mia can undergo this life changing surgery. We cannot fund this alone and any donation received will help us in the struggle to raise these much needed funds.

Thank you for taking the time to read Mia’s story.