Sebastiaan (Van Den Brandeler) Stobart is our 10-year-old boy who recently met up with an old friend from Egypt, a young girl called Leila Paris, at St Thomas’s hospital in London. Leila had been moved to St Thomas’s from Edinburgh to undergo treatment for Dystonia, a devastating illness, which has totally crippled her.
A year ago Leila was a healthy 9 year old girl but at this tender age, has had her life brought to a grinding halt to fight this condition. She is fighting it with courage, grace, determination and dignity; with the constant and unfaltering support of her parents Iain and Lisa.
Leila has been in St Thomas’s hospital since August where she underwent very specialized brain surgery, by the top specialist in this area. They have implanted a kind of pacemaker into her head to help control the spasms. The prognosis is that the operation can provide a 60% to 90% improvement in the symptoms.
A week after the operation Sebastian went with his sister and mum to visit Leila. Everyone was moved by the strength and courage shown by not just Leila but also Mum, Dad and little brother Finley, it has been a worrying time for them all.
On leaving the hospital and realizing just how poorly Leila was, Sebastiaan asked his mum what he could do to try and help her. Pretty nice stuff you would agree, but Sebastian has his own challenges, he has ADHD and Dyspraxia so suggesting such, was very special....
After chatting further with the family and knowing his sister Hannah-Beth had last year climbed the mighty Helvellyn (3rd highest mountain in England) with their dad, David.
Sebastiaan asked “I know I couldn’t manage it last year as I kept falling over, but maybe if I try really hard I could climb Helvellyn with your help David? Could I do that for Leila and raise money to help her go to Disney World?”
So the challenge was set.........