A two-year-old girl with cerebral palsy has been gifted some accessories for her specialist pushchair from fundraising group, Simon’s Heroes, to help keep her warm, comfortable and secure when she is out and about.
Evie Moppett, from Piccadilly near Kingsbury, was diagnosed with quadriplegic cerebral palsy in January 2019 after her family raised concerns about her lack of development.
“We started noticing when Evie was roughly 4 months old that she didn’t seem to be moving a great deal. She was very lethargic but a very happy little girl,” her nanna Tina said.
“We raised it with the health visitors who were absolutely great and kept an eye on her progress, which didn’t improve a great deal. When she reached the age of one, I took her along to the doctors due to concerns about the number of café au lait spots that had developed all over her body. Evie’s mother has Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a genetic condition that causes tumours to grow alongside the nerves but that are usually benign. Coffee coloured patches are symptomatic of the condition and I naively thought that NF1 was responsible for her delayed developed.
“Evie went along to hospital for an MRI scan which showed that she actually had periventricular leukomalacia, which is a form of brain damage. It is thought that this occurred antenatal. This brain damage is the cause of Evie’s cerebral palsy. Evie has also been confirmed with Neurofibromatosis type 1 and global developmental delay.”
Evie cannot sit or walk unaided and day-to-day life is challenging for her. She has learned how to roll so that she can get to her toys around the living room but it is difficult for her to play with them whilst she is lying down. She is able to crawl a little, but it tires her out.
Tina added: “Evie has a special feeding chair as she has difficulty with her swallowing and has a thickening agent for her drinks, as she was getting a lot of chest infections. Before we got Evie’s specialist pushchair, going out was very challenging. Evie would slump to the side in her standard pushchair, which made it very uncomfortable for her to be in for very long; we couldn’t browse around the shops or go for a nice walk. We were thrilled when the NHS agreed to fund a specialist pushchair and extremely grateful to Simon’s Heroes for purchasing the accessories to go with it, which included a canopy, rain cover, thermal cover and shopping basket.
“Having her special pushchair and accessories has made the world of difference to her. We now have at least a two mile walk every day and we can browse the shops and take our time whatever the weather. She’s now comfortable, warm and dry and getting lots of fresh air. Evie has a new lease of life and we are so grateful to Simon’s Heroes and the NHS for making this possible.”
Author: C Abbott.
