Mila was born on 20th March 2016 naturally at full term. Immediately after birth Mila became unwell and was transferred to NICU at Addenbrookes where she spent the first 2 weeks of her life. Here she underwent many investigations, the most significant being an MRI scan of her head which showed abnormalities in her brain, although at this stage we did not know the significance of these findings.

Until she was 6 months old Mila developed the same as any other child. However it then became clear that she was in fact going to experience difficulties with many of her everyday activities.

Mila was referred to Great Ormond Street where, at 17 months old, she was diagnosed with Bilateral Dystonic Cerebral Palsy. She has since had further tests, including a videofluoroscopy where it was discovered that Mila aspirates fluids into her lungs when she drinks. Mila has since had an operation to insert a gastrostomy tube into her tummy to allow her to be fed and receive her medications.

Currently Mila can sit-up unaided for short periods of time but she cannot crawl or walk. She doesnt have much control over her hands or arms making daily activities like playing and eating a struggle. When it became clear that Mila was going to face challenges in reaching her milestones we began to find specialist equipment that would help her to reach these goals and make her everyday life a little easier. Although some of this equipment is funded by the NHS we will also need to purchase some by ourselves if Mila is to have the chance she deserves to be as independent as possible. All of this, along with Milas weekly private physiotherapy sessions comes at a great cost which unfortunately we, as her parents, are just not able to cover fully.

Mila has already surpassed all of our expectations with what she has been able to achieve through her private therapy sessions and we know that with every extra session that your fundraising achieves her physical and cognitive abilities expand and most importantly her quality of life improves significantly.