Isla Smith is 6 and has Dravet Syndrome - a rare, catastrophic, lifelong form of epilepsy that begins in the first year of life with frequent and/or prolonged seizures.

Isla has suffered awful seizures since she was just eight weeks old and this has continued throughout her life. She has spent lots of time in hospital and intensive care due to the severity of her seizures.

She has developmental delay and has no speech, she is currently unable to walk and is fed through a tube in her tummy and has a portacath underneath her skin for instant access to a vein to administer emergency drugs in a critical situation.

Isla has a lot of daily medication which has many side effects and makes further development difficult. The family constantly have to carry emergency rescue medication and portable oxygen with them as every passing minute the seizures become more difficult to stop.

Devastatingly in July of this year, Isla suffered a status epileptics and was hospitalised for a number of weeks. Doctors informed the family that Isla had suffered a stroke which has led to further brain damage in her frontal lobes and potentially other areas of her brain – the family are currently waiting for further MRI scans to determine the full damage.

Isla currently has limited sight and movement and she is having regular spasms all down her left side. It is likely going to take months, perhaps years, of physiotherapy for Isla to regain some control of her movements.

Please donate whatever you can to help Isla.