Last year my friend‘s daughter Elizabeth (Libby) was diagnosed with a brain condition called Polymicrogyria after she was reaching milestones with significant delay, or not at all. Polymicrogyria literally means ‘too many small folds’, and they occur on the foetus brain during pregnancy. It can be genetic, or it can be caused by a virus, but little knowledge is known to pinpoint the reason.

At 2 years old, Libby still cannot walk, talk, and has difficulty eating and swallowing, with very limited hand movements and low muscle tone in her trunk and tongue, plus many other additional needs. She has the potential for seizures, however unfortunately, due to the nature of the brain condition, and the fact that folds can occur anywhere on the brain, every case is usually different, so we are blind to her future and how she will progress.

It is a very rare condition, and I wish to support research into how it is caused, what help can be done, and ideally testing for it in pregnancy like one has for downs syndrome. Awareness of the condition will also support further diagnosis, and therefore further research and help towards aiding her additional needs.

To raise money I will be running the Norwich 5k Colour Run on 7th July 2018 along with Libby‘s mum Rosy and 2 friends.

To find out more information you can follow this link https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/polymicrogyria

Thank you for reading and any support is greatly appreciated.

Zoey