Thanks for visiting our wedding list!

For the price of a toaster or a kettle or a set of fine plates you can make a donation to Steps as a wedding gift to us instead, without having to agonise over which present to buy us!

Shortly after Tamiza was born on 30 July last year she was diagnosed with Developmental Displasia of the Hip ("DDH"), a condition caused by a malformation / deformation of the hip socket.

Despite doctors having detected this early, and having spent her first few months in a harness, Tamiza is one of a very small number of children in the UK who each year require invasive surgery, followed by several months in a hip spica (plaster casing from chest to ankle) and brace, to encourage her hip bones and joint to develop into the correct ball and socket shape. We still do not know if she will require a period in traction as well.

Whilst Tami continues to develop just like a normal baby in every other way, she has been unable to crawl or kick her little legs or put her feet in her mouth or splash about in the bath for the past few months - all things which we take for granted with our children.

We will not know until much closer to the wedding day whether the surgery and hip spica have been successful, but we do know that there is a chance that Tami's hip will be permanently deformed or that she may require additional surgery going forward.

To learn that life can be unfair is a very harsh lesson for a 5 month old baby, but all throughout  her treatment Tamiza's happy, smiley nature has remained intact. We were told to expect her to be deeply distressed and screaming for a week after surgery. The fact that within 12 hours, after the morphine had worn off, she was smiling at us again with that huge smile of hers speaks volumes for the happy nature of our little girl - clearly takes after her mother and not a stress monkey like her dad!

Curiously she has developed an instinctive crying reaction as soon as she sees anaesthetists as she recognises them as the people who hold her down and force her to inhale anaesthetic gas!

When little Tamczek was first diagnosed with DDH we knew nothing about the condition and had never heard of it. We were put in touch with Steps, who have been a valuable source of advice and support ever since. Coping with a child with a lower limb deformity who is encased in plaster from chest to ankles is not easy.

Simple things like helping her sit comfortably, fitting her in her buggy and changing her nappies through a very small hole in the cast become very difficult and, initially, distressing. Fitting her in a normal car seat, highchair or giving her a bath become impossible. It is still heartbreaking for us to see the look of confusion cross her face when she tries sit up on her own and can't anymore, something which she could do before she was in a hip spica and which would draw rounds of applause from her parents (followed by proud smiles and squeals of delight from her!)

The Steps Charity website has given us useful and reassuring information since the beginning, and their staff have always been available for any additional advice from how best to have Tami treated through to giving practical tips on coping with a child in a hip spica. They have also been great in putting us in touch with other families in similar situations. AND they took little Tami to the Houses of Parliament as part of Baby Hip Health Awareness Week, which she really enjoyed!

But Tamiza aside, Steps provide invaluable advice to the families of children with conditions which are far more severe. Like little Olivia who has bi-lateral hip dysplasia and no hip sockets, not even shallow ones. Olivia has had to endure many, many months in hip spicas, traction and surgery on several occassions, including a SIX hour procedure. This would be very difficult for an adult to cope with, let alone a two year old baby.

She is two years old now and has never stood up, never taken a step. She watches her friends running, jumping, climbing and playing whilst she has to lie on the floor. She cannot sit on ride on toys or a rocking horse or slide down a slide. A childhood spent in and out of surgery and hospitals is a real possibility for her and many other children with this condition, and is something which no parent wants to have to see their child endure.

Olivia's story is truly heartbreaking. And if by chosing to make a generous donation to Steps instead of buying us household goods from a wedding list you end up helping even just one little child and her family in coping with lower limb deformities then you will have gifted us the best present for our wedding you possibly could gift us.

We greatly look forward to seeing you on our wedding day!

Dion and Anna (and Tamiza of course!) xxx