Family's pride as grandmother Denise Trudgian completes tough charity swim

A CARING grandmother has dived into a fundraising effort to raise £20,000 to fund her four-year-old grandson’s aftercare following his life-changing surgery.

Denise Trudgian (56) organised a sponsored one-mile swim at Maltby Leisure Centre on Friday in aid of little Elliott Kennedy’s rehabilitation.

Elliott was diagnosed two years ago with cerebral palsy spastic diplegia, which affects his legs, making them stiff and painful.

He has to undergo daily physiotherapy and uses a wheelchair or other aids to get around his home and school in Pontefract.

Maltby gran Denise said the family had been told in May that the NHS would fund the £40,000 life-changing selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) surgery, which would reduce or eliminate the tightness that causes Elliott to stumble and fall on a daily basis.

But the family will have to self-fund Elliott’s £20,000 two-year aftercare package following his operation on November 1.

Denise’s 64 lengths of the swimming pool added around £400 to the pot, and the family has so far raised around £5,000.

“I’m really pleased with the amount I raised,” said the grandmother-of-five. “It took me around an hour, which is what I was aiming for since I started practising in May.”

Elliott and his parents Steven (32) and Hannah cheered Denise on, along with children and staff from Once Upon a Time nursery in Maltby, where Denise works as a nursery nurse.

The nursery also made banners for the occasion.

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