Thanks for taking the time to visit my just giving page

First of all, we as a family would like to say that we are eternally grateful for the support that everyone has given Lauren so far with the fundraising for her surgery costs, we are absolutely overwhelmed by it all and there really isn’t enough words to explain our gratitude. This update is to inform everyone of where we’re at, as a lot of people know, but a lot won’t, since we were given the go ahead for her operation, we were also given a deadline, Laurens €35,000.00 surgery fee has to be paid by the end of the month, so what we are in the process of doing currently is withdrawing what is currently in the JustGiving account from all of you wonderful peoples hard work and generosity, and we are remortgaging the house to fund the rest of the fee. Now once the fee was paid to Eifelklinik, we were going to stop fundraising and thank our lucky stars for everyone’s support to get us as far as you have, a number of close friends, and absolutely unbelievably generous and caring people we have met because of this, have stated that this fundraising will not stop until that initial target is reached! So in this case we will do as we’re told, because it’s because of all of you that we’re in this very fortunate position. After the current funds are withdrawn, we will be adjusting accordingly as we have other fundraising events going on which a lot of JustGiving donors won’t know about, Lauren had a sponsored silence at school which raised £500, friends I’ve worked for donated £300 all things like this will be adjusted on the page so everyone knows what’s going on. Our next days are a family fun day at Bearpark on April 14th, and a Race night on May 12th, so all monies raised will be deducted on the page to reflect where we are. Once again, Thank you to everyone for what you’ve done, we will never forget it, and you’re efforts will have given Lauren a quality of life going forward that we never thought she would have. The Rennie’s. XXX

As some of you lovely people will know, and many of you won’t, after the recent bombshell news of Lauren’s potential VBT surgery at Shriners hospital in Philadelphia being declined right at the finishing line due to the possibility of the surgery making her shoulders uneven, We really didn’t want to give up hope so we desperately went on another search trying to find another specialist to possibly see Lauren and confirm that the Vertebral Body Tethering would not be suitable for Lauren’s structure. Miraculously we found a clinic in Simmerath, Germany who had in its residence a Shriners trained VBT specialist named Dr. Per Trobisch. After overcoming some quite difficult language barriers, We finally managed to have a chat over the telephone with Dr. Trobisch, he briefly looked and Lauren’s past X rays and he didn’t want to say anymore over the phone, he wanted to see her in clinic. Without going on and on, at 12.00 on the morning of January 12th, after a plane, bus and cab journey over to Germany, we were having our Consultation with Dr. Trobisch. After a quick meet and greet, we were in his office probably no more than 5 minutes before we were sent downstairs to have a number of new X rays done on Lauren so he could read them on a system he was familiar with, as soon as we came out of radiology and got back to his office he was already reading them and measuring Lauren’s curves to see what the next step was. After a brief chat, and a very thorough explanation of what he was seeing, he told us that Lauren had 3 curves, for the last 10 years we thought there was 2! And Lauren being Lauren, 9 out 10 patients have the curve on the right, so Lauren unknowingly decided to have a left curve! Which unfortunately comes with a complication. A left curve lies behind the Aorta, a main artery. Dr. Trobisch explained this was not the end of the world by any means but makes the procedure a little bit trickier as he has to move the Aorta forward to fix the components into Lauren’s vertebrae then allow it back in to place. But there was only one curve he was interested in, Lauren’s major curve which is central in her spine at 55 degrees. The small curves at the top and bottom of her spine he did not see as a cause for concern as he is quite confident that if the major curve is tethered that they will correct themselves in time. At the end of the Consultation he suggested we go home and have a think about what we would like to do, I as politely as I could at the time stopped him in his tracks and asked him if he was saying that he would do the surgery?? To which he said he would more than happy to! So I said I think I speak for both Joanne, Lauren and myself in saying that it’s a resounding ‘Yes from us’! We would have travelled to the ends of the earth to find someone as talented as Dr. Trobisch to operate on Lauren’s spinal correction, he teaches students this procedure at the University in Aachen, Germany so I don’t think we could have possibly found anyone more suitable however far we travelled. Dr. Trobisch is treating this as a single curve operation, and he is not personally taking any fee for his work, all of the cost is for the hospital, it’s staff and the components for Lauren’s vertebrae. The total cost for the operation is €35,000, or £32,000 in pound sterling. Originally the money we we’re trying to raise for the Philadelphia trip was some medical expenses, travel, accommodation, food etc, but now, although we are needing to raise quite a lot more, it is purely for Lauren’s surgery costs. This whole situation since it began has been one really big rollercoaster and to find someone like Dr. Trobisch to agree to do the surgery is nothing short of a miracle! I speak for everyone underneath our roof when I say we can not thank everyone enough for what they’ve done already and are continuing to do, this experience has certainly changed the way we are as a family, and even though we are people who really love to help anyone where we can, when this is over we fully intend to help people who need it a whole lot more! Thank you so much to everyone involved. The Rennie’s. Xxx

THIS IS LAUREN'S STORY

Our daughter Lauren is 12 years old, and from the day she was diagnosed with scoliosis at just 14 month old, she's wished for nothing more than to look the same as all of the other children and being as active and as free as a 12 year old should be.

She was born with a curved spine which was noticed at 14 months old, and from then she has had to frequently visit hospital every 3 months where she had to be sedated and a full upper body plaster cast was placed on her torso to support the back, this continued until she was 4 years old. She then had removable casts until the age of 8 years, but still had to be worn all day everyday, only to be briefly removed for her to wash. From the day that Lauren's diagnosis was confirmed, we always knew she was going to need an operation (spine fusion with metal rods) and seldom has a day gone by where we havent thought and worried about the operation day, as we know it is a very invasive and painful operation with a long recovery time and restricts movement.

Lauren is a wonderful, joyful, caring girl who always puts others first. She has always been brave & resilient and has faced whatever came her way and never complained. Lauren says " I am extremely grateful to anyone who can help me complete the last part of my journey

This is where we ask everyone....Please help us make our daughters dreams come true, as she puts it. "FIX MY WONKY BACK"

All or any donations are very much appreciated, thank you for taking the time to read Lauren's Story