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Mighty Malaya’s Journey to SDR

Malaya 1

Malaya is on a mission to have SDR (selective dorsal rhizotomy), a life changing operation that will transform her life. With support from Tree of Hope parents Buster and Kristine are raising  the £42,5000 to allow her to have the operation, therapy and equipment that will enable her to become more independent, mobile and pain free.

Malaya has cerebral palsy, a condition that means she has very tight muscles throughout her arms, legs and core and, at the moment Malaya has to do 2-3 sessions of physiotherapy and stretching to keep her movement as complete as possible.

Malaya’s family came to Tree of Hope to start a campaign aiming to raise over £40,000 so that she can have SDR (selective dorsal rhizotomy), a life changing operation that will enable her to be more mobile and independent. With thanks to parents Buster and Kristine and whole heap of friends, family and supporters, after just six months of fundraising with Tree of Hope the campaign has now hit (over) the half way mark to its goal.

SDR transforms lives. It is a neurosurgical procedure in which nerve roots are cut and split, and reduces spasticity and pain in the patient, plus over time increases flexibility. Like for many, SDR will transform Malaya’s life for the better. “Malaya’s physical progress in terms of unaided sitting, standing and potentially walking is currently hindered by the spasticity she has in her muscles, the tone issues she has from her CP (cerebral palsy) makes it very hard to coordinate her movements and develop learning patterns in balance and physical movements. SDR is the only operation or treatment known that can accurately and acutely release and remove the tone from her muscles, predominantly in her legs and lower body to help us progress in the fore mentioned physical activities. All daily activities including moving transitions, toileting and sleeping should also benefit from increased coordination and lower tone.”

At the moment life can be challenging but despite this Malaya is a very happy and sociable little girl. “Getting out and about is challenging” explains Buster “but we are never held back and Mum especially does a great job of finding ways around access to make sure she is never left out”. She loves to go horse-riding which really helps with her balance too. Play dates, treats and shopping for matching outfits with mum are also on the top of the list of things Malaya loves to do!

Fundraising can take time but fundraising with a registered charity like Tree of Hope brings many benefits that will help boost your fundraising campaign. This includes access to trust and foundation donations, gift aid claims, corporate support and matched funding.  “Tree of Hope has been an amazing choice for us, one donation in particular organised by an old school friend of over £3500 wouldn’t have happened at all but for the national recognition of the Tree of Hope, coming from a large private company they required the corporate recognition to of the national registered charity status. This for us was huge and we are so grateful! Tree of Hope also deal with all the paperwork, accounting and legal requirements for raising money and generally make it so easy for us to just focus on raising money!”

 

Tree of Hope supports seriously ill and disabled children by empowering their families to fundraise to obtain the medial treatment, therapy or equipment they need to transform their life. We support families throughout their whole campaign to ensure they reach their goal and every child gets the medical care they need. “Don’t hesitate, they (Tree of Hope) are always at the end of the phone with help and ideas. They have sent us all the supportive advertising things we have needed, collection pot stickers and balloons for example. The main thing they provide however is the platform to be seen everywhere and share your story to a much wider audience than we could have achieved with just friends and family.”

Malaya’s family have had a hugely successful campaign so far and are continuing to fundraise with plenty of events and challenges lined up. “We have a few great ideas planned and at this stage we are still blown away and so thankful for where we are at and how well we have done, the biggest thing we have planned is a charity ball planned for closer to Christmas for which we have had offers already for performers and caterers! Arranging these fundraiser events takes time and lots of effort from lots of people so we are focusing on one event at a time, the bike ride is happening very soon and all of our focus is there right now to make sure it’s as successful as possible!

If you would like to support Malaya on her mission for SDR please visit www.treeofhope.org.uk/mightymalaya or alternatively if you would like to speak to our Family Support Team about getting support from Tree of Hope with your fundraising campaign, call Georgie or Lee on 01892 535525.

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