Isla's dream to ride a bike!

Hi, my name is Sarah and I am fundraising to help a very special friend of mine to buy a disability trike. This beautiful 9 year old girl has always dreamed of riding a bike with her little sister and her friends and she absolutely deserves too! I will swimming the length of the English channel (22 miles) at Cheadle south moorlands leisure centre. My aim is to swim this over the next 4 weeks by swimming 5 days a week.

Isla was born spontaneously at 26 weeks gestation. In the first few days of her life she suffered several strokes, washing away brain matter from both the left and right sides of her brain. She was given a poor prognosis and spent approximately 4 months in intensive care at the neonatal unit at Royal Stoke Hospital. She had many set backs to include respiratory infections, and when taken off life support she was initially unable to breathe and had to have emergency procedures while they saw her turn blue to grey

Islas prematurity and strokes has left her with multiple medical conditions to include a dandy walker variant, an under developed cerebellum, syringomyelia, cerebral palsy primarily affecting the use of the right side of her body, lung disease and emotion regulation problems.

Despite her poor prognosis, Isla fought with unbelievable determination to achieve most of her expected milestones and she attends mainstream school, trying her very best to keep up with her peers.

When Isla cannot do something because of her reduced strength, compromised balance, or dexterity, she usually let's this go over her head and finds something else she can do, but riding a bike has always been a goal for Isla that she just hasn't been able to come to terms with not being able to do like all her friends.

Isla requires a specially adapted trike; specialist foot plates and something to hold her feet in position, a specialist seat with lateral supports, and left handed controls. With this, she would actually be able to ride a bike along with her friends and family and have a sensation that she has never had before.. the freedom you feel when you are independently moving yourself along on a bike, with the wind blowing in your face.

When Isla was around 2 years old, her mum, Steph was taken into hospital with appendicitis. During the operation, it was found that her mum had a large Desmoid tumour, and at the time, all surgeons could do was to remove the tumour along with surrounding bowel and lymph nodes, and wait for further tests and scans to establish prognosis.

Since that operation, Islas mum had multiple complications requiring a further 3 major surgeries. Recovery was long and difficult after each surgery particularly the last where unfortunately Islas mum had severe complications and ended up in a coma in intensive care at Royal Stoke Hospital. Islas mum did not show signs of recovery and her family were told she unfortunately would not make it; discussions were had between her medical team of switching off life support but luckily Islas mum started to show improvements and eventually was taken off life support and cared for on a pod with 1:1 support. Islas mum was initially paralysed and had to be hoisted to move, but fought hard to walk again and regain her mobility.

Islas mum now faces another major surgery, which has a high risk of serious complications; something that would mean the world to islas mum and the whole family is to be able to see Isla achieve her goal of riding a bike and to do this before her surgery which is expected to be imminent.

Isla's dad Ash, was employed full time but has recently been made redundant and is now trying to set up his own business. He has been a rock for the family throughout this rollercoaster ride and still remains seated and belted in.

Please help this amazing family by sponsoring my swimming challenge!

Thank you

xx