Girls have ‘overcome all odds’ in bids to walk

By Elaine Keogh

Monday, September 10, 2012

Two girls with cerebral palsy who have each undergone surgery in their bid to walk without aids have jointly won a People of the Year award for their bravery.

"Kayley was six and still not able to stand or walk," said her mother, Jacky Dunne. "She couldnt use a walking frame and was in a wheelchair the whole time."

Now she is walking on her own. "Its like [my legs] are loose and when I walk now I walk on my own just the way other people do," said Kayley, 8, from Navan, Co Meath.

Along with six-year-old Casey Fitzgerald, Kayley underwent surgery in a private clinic.

Both girls underwent a procedure called selective dorsal rhizotomy where the surgeon severed the spinal nerves causing the spasticity.

Kayley was one of the first Irish children to have the operation when she went to St Louis Childrens Hospital in Missouri two years ago. Her family raised 50,000 to pay for the treatment.

Casey, who is from just outside Kells, had her operation in January at the Frenchay hospital in Bristol: Her family raised a similar figure.

Following the surgery, the girls then faced two years of equally important intensive physiotherapy.

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Girls have ‘overcome all odds’ in bids to walk