Life Changing Surgery for our daughter, Lauren

For the past 15 years, Lauren has been under the NHS trying desperately to get a thorough investigation, accurate prognosis, and effective treatment for severe and debilitating jaw dysfunction. Sadly, this has had very little success.

Lauren's jaw is now permanently locked closed. Her mouth opening is restricted to just 18mm, she is unable to chew solid food and is entirely restricted to a blended / liquidised diet. At just 29 years old she spends every day in horrendous pain, unable to enjoy what a typical 29-year-old should. It even hurts her to talk, meaning she has to avoid socialising most of the time in order to manage her pain, or opt to suffer the consequences of having a coffee with a friend.

At the end of last year, Lauren's weight and BMI dropped to a dangerously low level due to her inability to eat any solid food. She is now under the care of a dietician.

After many trips to London to see leading specialists, we now know that Lauren has late stage Temporomandibular Joint Disease. This means that her jaw joint is catastrophically damaged; explaining why her function is so severely impaired and why the pain she is in is so severe.

There are only a handful of surgeons in the country who have the necessary skills and expertise to carry out the surgery Lauren needs and most only work in private practice.

We hope that by setting our target to £95,000 we can raise as much as possible towards covering the cost of Lauren's surgeries, medical/ travel expenses, and support her with loss of earnings.

Myself and Paul have supported Lauren as much as we can with private medical appointments and trips to and from London to access the answers and care she needs. We will continue to do all we can to support her, but we simply do not have the amount of money she needs spare.

Any donations, no matter how small, will make a huge difference to helping Lauren get the help she needs as soon as possible so that she is able to eat, function, and ultimately get back to doing what matters to her most – supporting young people in residential care as a Psychological Therapist.

From the very bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your continued support.

Paul & Denise (Lauren’s Mum and Dad)