Kiri's Cause

When you have a baby, all you want as a parent is for them to be healthy. My daughter Kiri was born 20 years ago and entered the world as a little fighter. I took her home and was loving being a new mum, however during one of my midwife checks, she got rushed into hospital and I had no idea why. The doctors were battling to find out the problem, but told me they weren't sure whether or not she was going to be ok. It was utterly devastating and I couldn't stand the thought of losing her. It turned out she was born with Transposition of the Great Arteries and needed open heart surgery to survive. It was such a humbling experience and I soon learnt that we were actually incredibly lucky as other children had far more complex conditions and I decided from then on to always just be grateful and life is a gift. I could not of asked for better care during the whole process and she recovered amazingly well.

I finally took her home and was relaxing into being a mum again. However when she was 8 months, she wasn't reaching all the usual milestones like sitting and crawling and was sent for physio. When she was 13 months old, she got diagnosed with cerebral palsy. This again was a complete shock, yet Kiri was such a joy, she pushed herself at physio even from a young age and I was always in awe of her resilience and determination. Again it opened up our world to a completely new way of life and we have met some amazing people because of it.

Kiri worked hard and became more independent with her walking around the age of 7, she began taking "free steps" with no aids. She still used a walking frame and wheelchair but also had a real thirst to be an independent walker.

At the same age, Kiri's hip had become displaced and I was told she needed hip reconstruction and some muscle release surgery. This took place just before Christmas in London and again Kiri never complained and just got on with it. This surgery was hard to watch her go through and even though the heart surgery was more serious, she was now older and understood what was happening and the pain she was in was difficult to watch. I desperately just wanted to take it all away for her. It took months of rehabilitation and hard work, but again Kiri did it all with a smile on her face.

Kiri had one further surgery to take the pins out of her hip when she was 10 and again, this took time to recover from.

The rest of Kiri's childhood was spent as any typical child, she passed all of her GCSEs and went on to do an apprenticeship in Media. She learnt how to drive, something we thought may never happen and she was loving having her first taste of true independence. She didn't have the chance to go and meet her friends down the park by riding a bike or catching the bus into town, so driving gave her the freedom she had been craving her whole life.

Kiri now works for the local county council in Adults Services and really enjoys her job, she wants to make a difference.

However 2 months ago, out of nowhere, Kiri began complaining about her hip being in a lot of pain. She had to stop driving, couldn't sleep and cried everytime she went up or down the stairs, she was basically bedroom bound. We were no longer part of child's services and the consultant she had been passed to in Adults services had left. So we had no point of contact to help. Kiri went to the GP who put her on several pain medications and made a referral to orthopaedics. The pain got so bad that I took Kiri to A&E. She had an xray a few weeks before and we were told that her hip was stable and they sent us away with more drugs to take and no follow up appointment, we were devastated. The drugs effected her skin and made her extremely fatigued.

Kiri's mental health was taking a real hit, she is always the first to look on the brightside, but this was unbearable as she felt no one was listening to her and I felt helpless not knowing where to turn. We returned to the GP and they made more referrals but we are still waiting to hear about these inital appointments. We were beside ourselves so we decided to book a private appoinment in London with a specialist. I finally felt like I had done something that might make her smile again. We were told at the appointment that Kiri does in fact need a hip replacement. She burst into tears when the consultant told her as she was so relieved that finally someone knew what the pain was and that something could be done.

We are now in the position of needing to raise £20,000 for Kiri to have a hip replacement privately. We are unsure if it will go over this with the follow up appointments and physio during her recovery, but we will not know this until the time comes. This is not something we have gone into lightly, I can not tell you how hard it us watching someone you love go from having a full, independent life, to needing help showering, dressing and being kept busy as her world closed in. Kiri has fought her whole life just to be able to do some of the things we take for granted everyday.

Over the years the NHS have been been utterly amazing and allowed Kiri to get to where she was, however the past few months, she has been completely let down.

Since leaving child's services, the transition has been horrible and created a huge anxiety for Kiri. She didn't feel believed and slunk into a shell.

This is why we are going privately, as she needs this surgery ASAP. The pain is unbearable everyday and so we are asking from the bottom of our hearts for anything, however much you can afford to please support us in helping Kiri get back on her feet and living life to the full, like she once did.

We will be doing lots of fundraising events to support this, including Gary and I walking the Southdowns Way which is 100 miles across 4 days. It is our small way of doing something that Kiri would absolutely do if she was able.

Other events will be added as we think of them and all donations will be collected on this page.

Thank you so much for reading and any support would mean the absolute world.