Our beautiful Isabella (Izzy) is the apple of our eyes….the happiest four year olds, who loves to be centre of attention.

At birth Isabella suffered a Grade 2 Haemorrhage (stroke) on the left side of her brain. Izzy spent the first four weeks of her life in intensive care at the Neo Natal Unit of Broomfield’s Hospital

She was referred to the Paediatric Neurology and Genealogy at Great Ormond Street to try and understand why Isabella had her brain Haemorrhage as she was a full-term baby with no complications during pregnancy. After having further tests and an MRI on her brain, it was confirmed at three months old that Isabella also has a very rare Chromosome Abnormality, “8p Inverted Duplication and Deletion”. Additionally, she has what is termed a “Sub-mucous cleft pallet” – something that affects her speech and eating.

Isabella is unable to do most things that children typically her age would usually do. She is unable to crawl, walk, stand independently and talk - things we often take for granted that our children will be able to do.

Izzy has not met her milestones, but despite of all of this, she is slowly progressing and she amazes me with her strength, patience and determination every day, all the while with her beautiful smile on her face.

At the moment, as we are battling with multiple diagnosis', we are working on her delays day by day. Isabella has been severely impacted by the bleed on her brain, which is in the motor neurone area, the part of the brain that controls one’s movement.

This has badly affected the right side of her body, giving her high muscle tone in her right leg and arm, making her muscles quite stiff. she has weak core, trunk and shoulders including restricted movement in her right hand and arm. Her balance is affected by tight muscle tone and because of this she tends to put all her weight on the left side of her body – despite her trying hard with her strong little legs 😊

Our reason for setting up this Just Giving Page for Isabella, is simply to help our daughter, or rather, ask for some extra help. This is not easy, but we will do anything we can to try to enable her to walk independently and be as mobile as she possibly can.

Isabella’s consultants have told me that she needs as much early rehabilitation (therapy) as possible and if she receives the intense therapy now, before the age of seven, children's brains have the ability to repair pathways that have been damaged by stroke. (This is known as plasticity)

Early treatment will increase the chance of her brain building new pathways, to enable her to have better mobility. Isabella does not naturally know, as of yet, how to move certain parts of her body , or how to co-ordinate her movements and has to be taught this via therapy to help her recognise that she can make her body move through practice and hard work.

We are raising money to give Isabella the best chance in life. We know there is only a small window of time for these therapies to get the best out of her. So we need to give her as much therapy as she can handle before its too late. Unfortunately we cannot just rely on the NHS ,as there is just simply not enough therapy to go around due to funding with the NHS, So we simply have no choice other than to use private therapist to assist Isabella in her treatment and rehabilitation

These weekly private sessions are vital for Isabella so we can build her strength,. By having these therapies this will enable Isabella‘s little body to have the consistency she desperately needs to improve, to help her understand how to move, step and balance by engaging her brain with repetitive movement and strengthening. She will be undergoing Botox injections within the next few months via GOSH and she will require extra intensive physio therapy to support the Botox injections. Botox is injected into tight muscles to help them relax, so therapist can then work on building the strength in the weak muscles , this will be amazing for Izzy and possibly life changing with all the support from the therapist. These injections will probably happen twice a year to give izzy the best chance.

I would also love to be able to fund an intensive three week physio programme at NAPA physio centre in America, this is a world class physio centre that offers help way beyond our reach financially, to be able to focus on a particular issues intensively such as stepping would be fantastic. This treatment alone cost £6000 just for the three weeks Programme, the opportunity to take her would be amazing .

Izzy attends Kids Physio Works London, This centre is excellent in its field with 18 years of experience and Birianit of CME Therapy who is amazing and has really helped Isabella.

Monthly Physio Therapy and CME Therapy costs around £500 per month which is one session each per week. so that is a total of £6000 for the year . Plus any other additional therapies of Occupational Therapy £75 per session and speech and language £60 per session. So as you can see this is all very expensive.

Due to Isabella's condition, as her mother, I have not been able to return to work, as I care for her full time. As a family, we are doing as much as we physically can, but we are under significant financial burden due to our loss of income and Izzy’s additional care requirements

With help from all of izzys private therapies and the NHS, we try to replicate all her therapies at home, but as a parent there is only so much one can do and we have to rely on the private sector to help Isabella, which is why we need your support, to give Isabella the best chance in her challenging life ahead.

If you feel you can offer a small donation to help our Isabella, we will be forever eternally grateful.

Please Help Isabella to Walk!!!!!

Much Love

Cassie & Adam xxx

Childhood Strokes

8p Inverted Duplication and Deletion

http://kidsphysiolondon.co.uk

https://www.napacenter.org/