In May 2024, I will be diving with sharks to help raise money to help my daughter continue to access the treatment she desperately needs. Please sponsor as much or as little as you can to help get Lauren to a place where she is free of pain and able to eat.

Lauren's Story:

For the past 15 years, Lauren has been under the NHS trying desperately to treatment for severe and debilitating jaw dysfunction. Sadly, this has had very little success. Lauren’s condition was never thoroughly examined, and it was presumed by numerous maxillofacial consultants that her pain was most likely muscular. She was told that stress and anxiety was likely causing her to clench or grind her teeth. Despite repeatedly going back and pleading for help, Lauren's condition continued to deteriorate.

Lauren's jaw is now permanently locked closed. She is unable to chew solid food and is entirely restricted to a liquidised diet. At just 29 years old she spends every day in horrendous pain, unable to enjoy what a typical 29-year-old should. It even hurts her to talk, meaning she has to avoid socialising in order to manage her pain, or opt to suffer the consequences of having a coffee with a friend.

At the end of last year, Lauren's weight and BMI dropped to a dangerously low level due to her inability to eat any solid food. She is now under the care of a dietician requiring prescription shakes to restore and maintain her weight.

After many trips to London to see leading specialists, we now know that Lauren has late stage Temporomandibular Joint Disease. This means that her jaw joint is catastrophically damaged; explaining why her function is so severely impaired and why the pain she is in is so severe. Her only option long term is a full TMJ replacement.

TMJ replacement surgery is reserved for only for the most severe cases of late-stage TMJ disease. The TMJ joint is an extremely complex joint that operates quite differently to other joints in the human body and replacing it is very risky (one of the biggest risks being paralysis of the facial nerve). As such, the surgery requires meticulous planning and preparation, by a very skilled surgeon.

There are only a handful of surgeons in the country who have the necessary skills and expertise to carry out bilateral jaw joint replacement surgery and it has been an incredibly tough battle finding a surgeon who is able and willing to perform it for Lauren on the NHS (privately this would have cost us £80,000). Although this is a huge relief, Lauren's surgeon is in London which is just under a 500 mile round trip. All her appointments, scans, tests and surgeries will require her to travel to and stay in London and we are told to expect many, many visits over the next few months since Lauren will need to undergo another surgical procedure (level III arthroscopy with Platelet Rich Plasma), specialist physio (pre and post op) and lots of tests prior to her eventual replacement surgery.

Lauren's medical bills (including travel to and from London, hotels, private clinics, etc) have already exceeded £2000. We hope that everyone will continue to support our fundraising efforts so that she is able to continue to to access the treatment she has fought so hard to get.