Music festival to help raise cash for youngsters' treatment

A TWO-day music festival will raise money to treat two young girls with cerebral palsy from the same village.
Festival committee members, (from left to right), Cllr Gill Shaw, Cllr Peter Blanksby and Cllr Wendy Fowkes with Daisy Garforth, dad, Lee and mum, Hollie. 171296-4Festival committee members, (from left to right), Cllr Gill Shaw, Cllr Peter Blanksby and Cllr Wendy Fowkes with Daisy Garforth, dad, Lee and mum, Hollie. 171296-4
Festival committee members, (from left to right), Cllr Gill Shaw, Cllr Peter Blanksby and Cllr Wendy Fowkes with Daisy Garforth, dad, Lee and mum, Hollie. 171296-4

The charity event on Wales Recreation Ground will help fund treatments for seven-year-old Daisy Garforth and Taylor Dobbs (3).

A variety of music acts will be performing in the marquee between 6pm and 11.30pm on Friday and from noon until midnight on the Saturday.

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Cash raised will help fund therapy for both Kiveton Park girls, whose brain conditions were caused by complications at birth. 

Daisy was born with cord presentation and was starved of oxygen for about 20 minutes, resulting in brain damage which caused her athetoid dystonic cerebral palsy.

Mum Hollie (32) said: “It means her muscles can be very, very floppy or very, very tight and it affects all four limbs.”

Several of Daisy’s treatments are unavailable on the NHS, including the three times a week she has hyperbaric oxygen therapy in Leeds.

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“Since Daisy’s been going for oxygen therapy in the last 18 months, she hasn’t suffered a cold, chest infection or anything like that,” said Hollie.

The youngster also attends London’s specialist Bobath Centre for a fortnight each year for intensive physio, speech and language and occupational therapy. The placement is funded but not the family’s travel or accommodation.

And neuro training, which maps which parts of the brain are over and under used, is another treatment the family is considering.

Daisy has learned to walk using a frame and attended mainstream school at Kiveton Park Infants.

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Dad Lee (41) said: “The head said when we first went there that if they had to knock walls down to accommodate Daisy, then they would. 

“He also said they wanted it to be a classroom of children, not a classroom of children and Daisy. “She has come on so much at that school, with a fantastic group of children around her.”

Taylor’s mum Suzie Oates is looking to the US for treatment for her daughter’s quadroplegic cerebral palsy.

She said: “Taylor is a happy three-year-old with a beautiful soul and deserves every opportunity to thrive.

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“She requires specialist care, help and support, including adaptations and specialist equipment to support her everyday living.

“Like any mother, I’d like to give her every chance to exceed expectations and meet milestones many parents take for granted.

“Unfortunately, a lot of these treatments are not available in the UK and the costs are high.”

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