Appeal for housing community to help fund life changing operation for Macy

Nicola Robertson, senior strategy officer for housing at East Lothian Council, is currently seeking help raising £150,000 for a life changing operation for her 10-year old daughter Macy.

Macy was diagnosed with scoliosis at six, with three curves in her spine, and now faces a race against time to get the funding together.

Nicola was very recently in America with Macy, having seen the specialist who has confirmed that an operation can be done but it is now time critical.

An appeal page has been launched which has raised over £20,000 from friends, family and colleagues in just a week.

A message on the page tells Macy’s story…

Meet Macy, a typical 10 year old who loves gymnastics, trampolining & hip-hop. She is daring, adventurous & has no fear but for the last three years, Macy’s activities have been severely restricted.

Macy was diagnosed with scoliosis at six years old, with three curves in her spine, each measuring from 40 to 48 degrees. Her situation is now critical and the NHS have offered a spinal fusion. With this she will not grow any more in height, although her limbs will continue to grow. It will severely limit her movement. She won’t be able to bend down and touch her toes or tie her own shoes.

After countless sleepless nights & weeks of research to find an alternative treatment, we found our miracle - vertebral body tethering or VBT. While this is desirable cosmetically, it also means less blood loss, less risk of infection & faster recovery time, as there is less muscle, bone & tissue damage.

Recent red tape of VBT means private consultants are unable to offer this treatment in the UK.

This decision could not have come at a worse time for us. Macy’s condition has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks & she is in pain. Her consultant states he must operate now. As fusion is now the only option in the UK, our only hope is to go to America for VBT, but time is running out.

The operation costs in the region of £130k plus expenses and in view of this, we are hoping to raise £150k by February 2017.

Please SHARE this post as widely as possible, spread the word & help support a fund to enable Macy to have this life changing surgery!

Thanks,

#TeamMacy

You can help towards Macy’s operation here and keep up to date with her progress on a dedicated Facebook page.