Having helped the Ward family on three occasions over the past few years, through provision of specialist feeding and mobility equipment that has undoubtedly aided everyday life and given Ivy, now 5, a newfound freedom, the Trustees were unanimous in agreeing the latest request to help this incredibly special family.
Born with a rare chromosomal abnormality that impairs her movement and communication Ivy has recently started to suffer from seizures too. To ensure her safety and prompt medical attention, Donations with a Difference have funded our first-ever support dog who will be specially trained to recognise when a seizure is imminent and alert Ivy’s parents and carers. Welcoming their new addition earlier this month the family will in due course offer their furry friend to help others as a ‘pat’ dog; a proven therapy to enhance health and wellbeing, and which will help so many people suffering from mental and physical ill health in the future. Now that really is a donation with a difference!
Natalie and her family had been on a huge fundraising campaign for the past 6 months to raise over £100k as the funds they desperately needed to get Millie to the USA as the only place that presented some form of hope to them by offering the treatment and rehabilitation programme that could potentially help her.
Overnight, Millie went from being a healthy, happy teenager studying her A ‘Levels and looking to her next adventure when she was incapacitated with the most excruciating pain. Within 24 hours Millie’s body started to shut down and she lost the use of all four limbs, her taste and touch. Diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a poorly understood condition which is a progressive disease of the Sympathetic Nervous System, quite simply Millie was experiencing “the most painful disease to all humanity” dubbed ‘The Suicide Disease’ because of the unbearable pain it leaves its sufferers in, wishing they would die to escape the pain. Since Millie’s diagnosis she has also been diagnosed with Small Fibre Neuropathy, Fibromyalgia, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Aquagenic Urticaria, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and PTSD.
Hearing from Natalie and the heartbreaking truth her and her family faced, the Trustees knew they had to step in and help Millie and unanimously agreed to make a significant donation to meet the gap in the remaining monies needed to get her to America. Her treatment is ongoing, it tragically may not work, but through the money we raised the night before we knew we could at least offer a glimmer of hope to a family immersed in the most unimaginable of situations. Because, at Donations with a Difference, that is what we do, we help those who need us, and we continue to hope and pray for Millie.
