Go Benjiro Go!! Help Ben get life-changing surgery to learn to walk!

Hi, my name is Ben, I am five years old, and I have Cerebral Palsy.

I was born pre-maturely at 32 weeks, causing a collapsed lung so I stopped breathing and had a loss of oxygen to my brain resulting in Cerebral Palsy. For me, Cerebral Palsy makes my leg muscles very tight because my brain sends the wrong messages to my legs. This affects my ability to do everyday things, such as, walking, playing with my big brother, going to the toilet by myself, kicking a ball and even getting out of bed unassisted. My hope is that SDR (Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy) surgery will give me the opportunity to learn to do these things independently.

Unfortunately SDR is only available in the USA and costs a lot of money. I am very lucky though to have been accepted to have the surgery at St Louis Children’s Hospital in May this year. When I have the surgery the doctor will need to cut the nerves in my spine that are sending the wrong messages to my legs, this will reduce the tightness in my muscles that prevents me from walking now. Afterwards, I will have to work hard to build up the strength in my legs and eventually, with lots of rehabilitation therapy, I hope to learn to walk.

My Mum will also need to come with me to America and we will need to stay there for over a month as after the surgery I need to go to the hospital everyday for intensive physiotherapy. This will help me build up the muscles in my legs to begin to learn to walk. When I return to NZ I will also need lots of on-going physiotherapy. Any donation you would like to make will go towards the costs of my trip, surgery and follow-up physiotherapy which all costs $150,000.

This year I started school, which I love. Now my dream, with the help of SDR, is to one day be able to walk alongside my classmates.

Thank you for helping me achieve my dream, Ben

If you are interested in finding out more about SDR and the life-changing opportunity it will give me please go to: http://www.stlouischildrens.org/our-services/center-cerebral-palsy-spasticity/about-selective-dorsal-rhizotomy-sdr