As some of you know, our beautiful girl Sophia was born in November last year and had a very traumatic start in life. All was going well with the labour and everything was fine until it wasn’t. I suffered a uterine rupture which was sadly not picked up on in time by hospital staff despite warning signs, resulting in Sophia being detached from the placenta and deprived of oxygen (for an unknown amount of time). She was born not breathing, had to be resuccitated and went through hypothermic cooling treatment. She was diagnosed with HIE at birth (which is loss or lack of blood flow and oxygen to the brain). The effects of which we were told would be a case of ‘wait and see’ although we were given a very grim worst case scenario prognosis and that she is at risk of Cerebral Palsy.

Sophia and I are both lucky to be here today. It’s been the toughest 6 months of our lives coming to terms with what happened and the unknown future. Sophia is being closely monitored and unfortunately her care team are now seeing signs of Cerebral Palsy developing. It’s too early at this stage to diagnose and we are hoping with the right therapy she will be able to overcome any challenges (or at least to a certain extent). Sophia attends NHS physiotherapy every fortnight and so far despite these ‘signs’ is developing well and meeting milestones so far. She’s very alert, interactive, social and bright. She’s rolling and moving about the floor but we can see she has weakness in her back causing her difficulty in sitting. We don’t feel the NHS physio targets the correct areas to help Sophia gain strength and overcome these weaknesses to be able to sit, and then go onto crawl and walk (hopefully).

We have been researching alternative therapies and decided on a therapy called ABR which works to strengthen the connective tissue in the body and build the correct relationship between the body and the brain. This therapy is not available on the NHS, in fact they do not consider it an option, however ABR has proven results. A year of therapy is £5,500 and we are therefore starting fundraising efforts to try and fund this therapy for Sophia.

Sophia was given the middle name of ‘Hope’ as all we have is hope. HOPE that we can find a suitable therapy. HOPE that the therapy works. HOPE that Sophia gets stronger. HOPE that Sophia can sit. HOPE Sophia will go onto walk. Sophia is our little fighter but needs some help.

Thanks for reading xx

**** Our initial fundraising event is Big Fun Run Glasgow on 28th July in Bellahouston Park. Myself, Martin and the girls, along with other family members will be taking part in this 5k fun run. If you wish to sponsor any of us, you can do so via thus page. All donations are greatly appreciated, thank you. ****