Melanies Mission To Live

The Melanies Mission Charitable Trust is a cause created to raise funds for life saving Neurosurgery for Mel Hartshorn.

Thanks to your generous donations I underwent TWO revolutionary & worlds first 13hr neurosurgeries in Barcelona - to save my life after living in a surgical halo for over 18months, with no hope of a future! 

The surgeries were a success & I am now halo free, seizure free & no longer having life threatening respiratory arrests! 

 However, I suffered life threatening complications & my body was not strong enough to complete the thoracic section of the surgery, so the second vital stage of my lifesaving neurosurgeries needed to be postponed and I needed an extra hospital admission for 3weeks intravenous nutrition which was an extra unforeseen cost that wasn’t budgeted for!

 

I need your help, to reach our target and be able to pay off the debt incurred and relieve the financial stress of fundraising and debt for both me and my mum… so I can begin to recover and live my life at last, without the constant worry of how to pay off the debt. 

I was having major dislocations of my thoracic spine if I move or even just take a deep breath. Causing episodes of paralysis, excruciating pain, dangerous heart arrhythmias, diaphragm spasms & for me to pass out if upright…

I needed this final surgery now, to be able to come home, live my life & prevent fatal damage to my spine!

To be able to live, play with my dog, have fun with family, achieve my dream of becoming a teacher, make up for lost time with my niece & spend quality time with my mum who’s just been diagnosed with heart failure! Due to this it’s really important to keep stress to a minimum for my mums heart, and she’s extremely stressed about having to sell our adapted home, to raise the funds to pay off the debt we owe. 

Please help us make Melanie’s mission to live, mission complete- by donating to the Melanie’s mission charitable trust today! 

 Thank you! 

 Mel x

Mel is a 33yr old bubbly, caring & loving young lady facing the prospect of dying - she needs YOUR HELP AGAIN!

She lives in Cramlington, Northumberland and has always aspired to become a primary teacher, since graduating from Newcastle university with a Biology degree.

She underwent specialist and life saving neurosurgery in Barcelona Spain, to fuse her skull and entire Cervical spine together, and a second surgery to fuse her lower thoracic, lumbar spine and pelvis to prevent it from dislocating! The surgeries were a fantastic success- thanks you all YOUR generous donations and support!

However, her fusion was broken 2years later during an unrelated surgery in the U.K. She is now in a surgical Halo vest until we can fund the £100,000 surgery able to fix this issue & prevent her from having life threatening respiratory arrests and constant seizures.

Her specialist neurosurgeon in Barcelona has sought advice from experts worldwide and created the best surgical plan possible- to stabilise the two unstable areas (C1 & T1) from the front- anteriorly.

This is to be done with the help of a team of surgeons with different specialities in Barcelona, working together, and we need to raise the funds by October 2022. If there are any surplus funds, they will be used to purchase further treatment or equipment needed for Mel, that is not available on the NHS. Such as her bone fusion injections etc.

As explained, we were in desperate need of support to fundraise for her lifesaving surgery! Our brilliant local community came together to help us gain and generate the momentum essential to keep the campaign active with awareness and funds coming in constantly by obtaining both national and international public support for #melaniesMissionToLive!

Mel now needs your support again, more than ever, for further lifesaving neurosurgical treatment…. As a halo is “not a long term solution” but without it she will die, and time is running out.

*The fundraiser beneficiary “Mary/Molly Hartshorn” is Mel’s Mum, and all money raised goes directly into the Melanie’s Mission Trust account- to be used directly for Mel’s surgeries, and treatments not available on the NHS*