Barnoldswick cerebral palsy tot’s hopes of £25K operation (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Barnoldswick cerebral palsy tot’s hopes of £25K operation

1:00pm Wednesday 12th September 2012 in News By Tyrone Marshall, Reporter

THE family of a tot who has cerebral palsy have launched a campaign to fund an operation that would help him to walk.

Nineteen-month-old Oliver Rushton has spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy, and his family need to raise £25,000 to pay for the operation on his spinal cord.

Oliver, of Barnoldswick, was diagnosed in April and mum Helen said it ‘blew our world apart’.

She said: “When you’re told your child has a disability you don’t want to believe it. You find yourself in a world you don’t want to be in.

“You have to do what you can to make the best life you can for your children.”

Mrs Rushton, a part-time midwife, and her husband Adam, have launched the fundraising campaign to allow Oliver to undergo the life-changing surgery.

The family of Earby youngsters Robin Carter , who also has spastic diplegia, raised £45,000 to allow him to have the operation in the United States, but Mrs Rushton has been told Oliver may now be able to have the operation in the UK.

She said: “We’ve been told that hospitals in Bristol, Oswestry, Liverpool and Leeds are now doing it.”

Oliver currently wears splints on his legs to help stretch his muscles, but is not allowing his condition to get the better of him.

Mrs Rushton said: “He’s frustrated because he can’t do what other children can do, but he’s very determined and this determination has got him to where he is now.”

The first fundraisers for Oliver have taken place, and the family hope the operation will happen once he is three or four years old.