Latest Newspaper Articles
Tale a Break Magazine 3rd March 2011
Lovely article on Bella and 4 other families who have travelled to US and changed their childrens lives after having Dr Park's SDR operation
Jan 2011 - Review of the Year
http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/s/2085115_review_of_the_year_july_2010
Bracknell News
http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2083540_working_out_for_bella
Bracknell Standard
Join fundraiser for bella - 23rd Nov 2010
http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/news/s/2082722_join_fundraiser_for_bella_6_to_pay_for_lifechanging_op
15th July 2010 - Bella pictured walking!
http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/news/s/2074899_look_at_me_im_walking
Bracknell Standard 7th May 2010- Bellas had the op
http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/news/s/2070715_bellas_had_the_op_and_is_doing_well
10K run for Bella- 15th April
Radio interview
Featured on Heart FM - 2 March 2010 - Please see article below taken from Heart FM website - to hear an interview with Bella's Mum click on link below
Listen to the full interview with Tracey
£40,000 to take first steps
A family from Bracknell have to raise £40,000 to send their little girl for a life-changing operation in America.
Isabella's condition...
Five year old Isabella Mays has Diplegic Cerebral Palsy and needs the operation so she can walk.
At the moment she uses a walker to get around, or crawls along the floor when she is inside the house. Her mum Tracey told us that can often make Isabella frustrated, especially as her twin brother has no such condition, "It effects the whole family. When you're going out she really wants to walk. She gets frustrated and upset when there's things she can't do."
Going to America...
After hearing about a little girl from Dorset with the same condition as Isabella, who was treated at a hospital in Missouri and given an operation called "Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy", so Tracey got in touch with the same hospital.
She told us St Louis Children's Hospital have now offered some hope to the family, "The hospital told us we needed to get hip X-Rays, spine X-Rays and an MRI scan. We had to send all that information on disc to America, along with a video of Isabella so they could assess her movement."
Hope...
The specialist doctor at the hospital in the States is confident the operation, along with physiotherapy treatment, will help Isabella walk.
Tracey told Heart that will mean doing normal activities that all children enjoy, could finally be possible for Isabella, "Even going to the park is difficult as she can't get on all the equipment and gets upset as she is so determined. She is getting too big for the little swings and the big swings aren't safe for her."
Funding the trip...
The cost of the whole trip will be at least £40,000, and that is if there are no complications. Tracey said the family have already booked the operation for May, but have not yet got the money to pay for it, "It's important Isabella has the operation as soon as possible, so I've been fundraising and trying to get as much of the cash as I can before the trip. But inevitably we will have to get a loan to pay for some of it."
