Our daughter Gabriella 2,5 years old, was born very prematurely at 25.5 weeks. However, from 22 weeks it was a very high risk pregnancy as her mum lost waters. At that time no one expected Gabriella to survive and she was given less than 1 % chance to survive.

After birth Gabriella was rushed to Intensive Care in the Neonatal Unit Women Hospital where she stayed for 3 months. She was discharged and admitted to the Countess of Chester Hospital. She had many chest infections and was unable to swallow safely and as a result she could not be fed by mouth – and this is the situation at present. It was a very long and hard time for my wife and I and we had to make sure that all care was done in this same way as any difference would cause Gabriella to regress...

Eventually after 7 months she was discharged from the Countess and allowed home. However, she was diagnosed as suffering from Cerebral Palsy and other related condition. She was prescribed much medication and required a great deal of care and attention. Gabriella was home for a month only before she was admitted into the Critical Care Unit at Alder Hey Hospital. For three weeks Doctors could not say for certain if she would survive; it depended very much on Gabriella. Thankfully she came through this ordeal and was discharged six weeks later from Alder Hey.

The winter was very difficult for of us as Gabriella had many hospital visits. We welcomed 2017 with the diagnosis that no one could say whether Gabriella would be able to walk or talk or feed herself. So far we are pleased and thankful that she is able to walk with the help of a walker and is able to talk; feeding herself has not as yet been achieved.

We are raising funds for Gabriella to have therapy to help her to walk independently. We want Gabriella to attend The Movement Centre, based at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital Oswestry is a charity providing a specialist therapy, called Targeted Training that helps children with cerebral palsy and other difficulties that can affect their movement control is prepared to help us if we are able to raise sufficient money. Their specialist could see the great potential for Gabriella, through Targeted Training therapy to be able to walk independently.

We were asked to contribute half of the treatment cost of £3125 to enable Gabriella to begin this treatment and the charity is able to fund the rest through donations. Any more we are able to raise can help Gabriella with other further therapies and equipment.

As Gabriella is small and still growing she will benefit quicker from starting as soon as possible rather than if it were postponed for a few years so we would really appreciate any help!