Weʼre raising £25,000 to Give Oscar the chance to walk unaided with the help of potential life changing SDR surgery

I would like to introduce you to our lovely little son called Oscar who has a heart of gold. Oscar was born at a nice weight - 6lb 14oz even though he was almost a month early.

We were very happy to have him safe and well, and it’s a moment we’ll never forget. Suddenly we had a beautiful baby boy with chubby little cheeks!

He is now three years old and takes such an interest in the world around him. When we go out for the day all he wants to do is connect with others. Like any other child he loves playing with his trains and is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. In many ways he is ahead of reaching many of his milestones, he is advanced in his talking and in his understanding of the world around him. However, he is unlike many other children when it comes to mobility and gross motor skills. He had a very difficult birth and it is only just recently that he has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

I remember his birth as if it was yesterday, Emma, my wife, went into labour three and a half weeks early, with Oscar presenting in a breech position. The hospital wanted to try and turn him, but after a scan they couldn’t see if the chord was around his neck. They left it a day and it was decided that the midwife would try a manual rotation, Emma found this very painful and distressing, and she was concerned that it was damaging our baby. After four unsuccessful attempts, they decided to perform an emergency caesarean section. With Oscar being our first child, we trusted the doctors and left his life in their hands.

Oscar didn’t develop physically like his peers and was significantly delayed on his gross motor skills. He wasn’t able to crawl, or sit up properly, and at 6 months old we brought this to the doctor’s attention.

Two and a half years later, following multiple appointments and assessments and not knowing what was wrong with our son, we were finally given a diagnosis in July 2019, just before his 3rd birthday.

Oscar has Cerebral Palsy, which affects his ability to do many of the things we take for granted, like sitting, standing, walking and simply playing independently.

Emma and I have noticed that when he’s around other kids, he obviously knows he’s different. We find this really hard to face up to and feel so sorry for him. Oscar is unable to walk un-aided and its gut wrenching to see him upset when other kids run away from him with his toys, knowing that he can’t chase after them. He must feel so sad deep down, and it rips us apart knowing there is nothing we can do to help.

Despite all of his challenges and mobility issues he is the happiest, most determined little boy, bursting with personality and a wonderful cheeky little character.

We want the very best for him, as any parent would, and we will do anything and everything we can to give him the best life possible.

Our biggest hope is a surgical procedure called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) which, although invasive, has an extremely high success rate and in the vast majority of cases significantly improves the patient’s quality of life. The procedure aims to reduce spasticity (tight and stiff muscle tone) in the lower limbs; this will reduce the amount of pain he experiences. The operation also improves mobility and increases independence. We are hopeful, that eventually, it will lead to Oscar being able to walk independently.

This is currently under discussion with doctors, as his latest MRI scan did not show Periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) which is a type of brain injury that is most common in babies born too soon (premature) or at low birthweight. The white matter (leuko) surrounding the ventricles of the brain (periventricular) is deprived of blood and oxygen leading to softening. The white matter is responsible for transmitting messages from nerve cells in the brain so damage to the white matter can cause problems with movement and other body functions.

Without PVL being present, the NHS will not provide the treatment and it must be funded privately at a cost of £25,000, including a £2,500 consultation charge which is non-refundable if they decide Oscar is not suitable. This is a huge amount of money to find, adding extra stress and worry and delaying our chance to help our son.

Oscar has been through so much already, with his appointments for physio, hydro, having splints and being put to sleep for scans and Botox injections to try and loosen the tightness in his legs.

On top of all of this, last year his mum was diagnosed with grade 3 invasive breast cancer. Emma had found a lump previously but was dismissed - at only 28, she was told she didn’t need a mammogram as she was too young. She was told it was just tissue from breastfeeding, but this wasn‘t the case.

Emma went through months of very intensive treatment and had to have a mastectomy. Thankfully, she is now on the mend, but she’s unable to have reconstructive surgery yet, as Oscar relies on her so much to help with day to day tasks.

Due to the aggressive nature of her cancer Emma had to start her treatment quickly and we didn’t have time to freeze any eggs. This would have cost us £5,000, but most importantly delayed her treatment. We decided to concentrate on what we had, rather than thinking about someone we could possibly have had in the future.

After her treatment, we’re not sure if we can have any more children, this makes us even more determined to give Oscar the best possible start in life.

On top of the emotional trauma, all of this has been a massive financial burden.

Emma had to shut down her hairdressing business, and without critical illness cover we lost a huge amount of income and our savings soon evaporated. This has just added to the heartbreak, stress and upset for our family.

We have already paid to have our house made more Oscar-friendly by widening doors, putting ramps in and replacing the flooring throughout with no door strips or tripping hazards. We have tried so hard to get through this and fund it ourselves, but it’s just proving impossible, which is why we have decided to make this public and start a fundraiser.

We would like to try to raise money in two parts – the first £2,500 to have the consultation to make sure he is eligible for the operation and to see what the risks are. If successful, we would then like to raise the remaining £22,500 to fund the operation and the intensive physio and all of the aftercare that follows, which is critical to the success of the operation.

This has been a tough few years and we’ve had a lot to come to terms with, but now we all need to start living life again. We need to do all that we can to make our son happy and focus on us as a family, as we have learnt, you never know what is around the corner.

As parents our mission is to try help raise money for him to be considered to have this potentially life changing surgery. This is our only hope at giving Oscar the chance of walking without aid and to see his beaming smile when he is no longer in pain, the stiffness in his legs has gone and hopefully is able to walk without needing aid of his frame or the support of others.

Please help us to raise as much money as possible for our amazing little boy!

If we manage to go over the target we will split the extra money and donate it to Breast Cancer Care and Bristol Children’s Hospital.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for all your support, no one will ever understand how much this means to us as a family.

Love to you all,

The Cridge family