Parents fight for their daughter with cerebral palsy to get up on her feet

A young mum and dad who dream of seeing their disabled daughter up on her feet are organising their own fighting fund.

Little Bella-Skye Stokes has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and, at the age of almost three, can only lie on a rug and watch other children play.

But mum Melanie, 26, and dad Ben refuse to give up hope that she will one day sit up unaided, stand and walk.

Together they have organised a Family Fun Day to raise £1,500 to pay for intensive private physiotherapy through the miracle-making Footsteps charity in Oxfordshire.

“We want to pay for a three-week course every year to help Bella-Skye. The physiotherapy offered by the NHS is good, but it’s not enough to make a real difference,” said Melanie, who lives in Bletchley.

She and Ben, who works as a supervisor, plan to plough ever spare penny into their daughter’s treatment.

Born 11 weeks premature, Bella-Skye contracted meningitis and stopped breathing when she was just three months old.

Doctors are not sure whether it was her early birth or lack or oxygen during the meningitis scare that caused her disability.

“Either way she’s a little fighter. She’s as bright as a button and she loves to play, just like other children. She deserves every chance we can give her to walk like them too,” said her mum.

Footsteps was set up in 2004 by Pip Hoyer Millar whose daughter Minty has cerebral palsy. Pip was told Minty would never develop beyond the abilities of a four- year-old and would never walk independently. Thanks to the charity’s unique therapy and equipment, Minty walks, talks and leads an active social life.

Bella-Skye’s fun day, which has been organised solely by Melanie and Ben, is on June 25 at Scots Club in Bletchley.

There will be a football tournament, trampolines, inflatables, a bungee run, Gladiators, stalls, ice creams and a barbecue.

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