Fulham Community Helps Caya to Have Life-Changing Operation

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Fundraising for eight year-old includes marathon eight hour run around South Park

A  community fundraising drive has been launched in Fulham to raise the cash needed for eight year-old Caya Newman to have a life-changing operation.

Caya, who attends Sulivan Primary School in Peterborough Road has a painful condition called spastic diplegia cerebral palsy, which affects her muscles, and means she can no longer walk unaided.

Dozens of local people have pledged to walk a sponsored marathon around South Park on 19 November in a bid to help.

Caya’s mum Lucy Machin says that after NHS funding was stopped for the selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) operation, which will cut the nerves in the spinal cord that contribute to the condition, she was determined to find a way to foot the bill.

"At eight she is becoming more and more aware of finding things harder than her peers and her younger sister, and finding this more and more unfair," says Lucy, who lives in Townmead Road.

After five months of fundraising, the campaign had raised only a fraction of the cash needed – which includes £31,000 for the operation and at least another £10,000 for the ongoing, intensive physiotherapy required afterwards.

Then support came from an unexpected source. Sulivan Primary School PTA member Jemma Greenslade, a mum of two children at the school, had been drumming up support for Caya’s cause at a local café when a man approached her.

"He wanted to know what we were doing and, when I explained, he told me to leave it with him," says Jemma. "I was busy with school and the PTA so didn’t think much about it, but when I bumped into the man again, he said he could help us raise a large amount of the money."

The man was building contractor GM Developments' project manager John Phoenix, who has persuaded his company, business associates and colleagues to pledge up to £30,000 – if he completes the marathon with the other walkers.

John, who lives in Battersea, will be taking part in the marathon effort with ten colleagues from GM Developments, and said when he overheard the mums discussing Caya’s operation, he felt compelled to help.

" I have done mini-marathons and took part in the London-Brighton bike ride, but never a full marathon,” explained John. "But this will mean so much to Caya – she is a beautiful little girl and why wouldn’t we want to help make sure she can have this operation?"

Fundraising for youngsters is a cause close to John’s heart, after his 17-year-old son died of a heart attack while playing football.

The walkers will need to complete 42 laps of South Park – a feat that is expected to take around eight hours – to ensure they meet their sponsorship target.

"We’ll 100 per cent do it, and every step is worth it to make a huge difference to Caya," says Jemma.

Caya’s operation has now been booked for 7 January at the Portland Hospital, the UK’s largest private children’s hospital.

Mum Lucy adds: "When Caya was first diagnosed we asked her consultant what the condition meant and we were bluntly told 'Put it this way, she’ll never run a marathon'.

"We want to prove her wrong."

You can give your support to the walkers in South Park, Fulham from 8am on 19 November or to donate to Caya’s operation and aftercare visit her fundraising page.

Caya and mum Lucy

October 21, 2016