A brighter future for Orla

“Fundraising for therapies and equipment to help Orla reach her full potential after a brain injury at birth”

Myself and Matt have been together 14 years and married for 4. We always longed to start a family and received the heart breaking news that we would have to receive treatment for this dream to become a reality. After a gruelling IVF journey our dreams finally came true when we found out that our treatment had been successful and our little 'bean' would be due in August 2020, just in time for my 30th birthday.

Following a healthy pregnancy, Orla was born via emergency C section on 19th August 2020 at 41 weeks gestation. As a result of a traumatic birth she suffered Hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) Grade 3. Shortly after birth Orla began therapeutic hypothermia treatment (cooling treatment) and she was transferred to Nottingham City Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to be placed on a ventilator and continue with specialist care. An MRI scan on day 8 showed severe damage had been caused and we received the devastating news that if Orla was strong enough to breathe independently, that her quality of life would be poor and that she may be unable to suck/swallow, walk or talk. Orla being the little fighter she is pulled through, and on day 10 we bought her back to the Royal Derby Hospital to continue her care and we finally brought her home at 23 days old with an NG feeding tube in situ.

Fast forward to today and we are preparing to celebrate Orla’s first birthday. She is an unbelievably smiley little girl with the cheekiest of personalities. She now feeds orally and has even started to occasionally manage pureed food. However, Orla’s injury has left her with quadriplegic Cerebral palsy, epilepsy,  cerebral visual impairment and global developmental delay. At present Orla is unable to roll, sit, or crawl, however she has worked extremely hard on her head control, and she enjoys plenty of tummy time.

As any parent, we want to give our little girl the best possible chance of some independence and as our once hopes and dreams of family life have dramatically altered, our goals are to now help Orla learn to sit, stand and walk, whether that be independently or with specialist equipment, and to enjoy the simple things in life that she may otherwise find difficult to do so.

Although some of the equipment is funded by the NHS, we will also need to purchase some ourselves if Orla is to have the chance she deserves to be as independent as possible. We have recently begun some private intensive physiotherapy to explore Orla’s potential further, and we are excited by the small improvement we have seen so far, however this comes at a great cost and something we, as her parents, cannot solely sustain. Orla has already surpassed our expectations with what she has achieved so far and we know that with every extra session that your fundraising achieves, her physical and cognitive abilities will expand and most importantly, aim to improve her quality of life significantly.

To kick start our fundraising events, Matt and a group of his friends (some avid cyclists, some not) are preparing to cycle over 90miles from Derby to Skegness and we hope to organise further events in the future (as and when our busy, chaotic life allows!)

Our initial target is based on 1 years worth of private therapies and we thank you in advance for your love and support to our little family.

Love, the Roberts family