A very good friend of mine has a story which, as a parent, I cannot even begin to comprehend.

At 18 months old, Their little boy, Shay, was diagnosed with epilepsy when he began having seizures. An MRI detected that his brain was misshapen and that there was a light where the seizure activity was present. They later went on to discover that that light patch was in fact a tumour which had been present from the womb and his brain had formed around it.

After a few tough weeks in hospital with Shay having clusters of seizures, and at one point in status epilepticus and drugged to the absolute max, Shay was transferred from QA hospital to Southampton General for specialist care. Finally he began responding to meds and was able to go home.

A subsequent visit to hospital for video telemetry showed that, although not always visually apparent, his brain was showing signs of almost constant seizure activity.

Now 5 years old and highly medicated on anti epileptic drugs, after numerous hospital visits and changes to meds, the doctors have decided that the best course of action now is to operate to remove the tumour. The medication, coupled with the condition make shay very tired, alter his mood and limit his abilities. He suffers from regular bad head aches and needs a lot of suopervision.

The date has now been set for Shay to have Transsylvial Selective Amygdalohippacampectomy (a procedure where his left temporal lobe will be removed along with the tumour.

As you can probably imagine this is a very difficult time for Shay and his parents. No one is sure how long the recovery will take or what parts of Shay's life will be affected.

I'd like to raise a bit of money to help this family cover some expenses associated with this ordeal so that they have one less worry occupying their minds.

In the short term there will hotel and travel etc lost earning etc. In the long term no one knows but anything we can do to help take some pressure will be greatly appreciated.