Alyssa's chance to interact with the world

Alyssa-Mae was born in May 2008 in Portsmouth. She still lives in Fratton, along with her Mum, Dad and 2 sisters. She has an extremely rare chromosome disorder, only 2 other people worldwide are known to have the same condition, so there is no knowing what the future holds for her. She has congenital heart disease and epilepsy. Alyssa is non-verbal and has global development delay. Her needs are very complex, yet despite this her family coped with the rollercoaster that day to day living with Alyssa brings. Recently, however, Alyssa became ill and worsened rapidly. She was transferred to intensive care and spent a week in an induced coma and had severe sepsis. Her organs had begun to shut down. Alyssa is a fighter though, and battled back from this - 60% of children that become this ill sadly don't make it. She is one of the most amazing children I have ever had the honour to know - she is happy within her own world most of the time, but recently has become more and more frustrated when she cannot make her own needs known to her family, friends or carers.  Both at home and at school she s showing an ability to be able to use technology.  She is able to understand some of the functions of the iPads at school, and can open and look at photos on people's phones
We are trying to raise funds for Alyssa to be able to experience something that most people take for granted.  The ability to interact with the people around her using communication technology.  With the aid of specialist programmes and apps on an iPad, she would be able to start communicating with people.  For instance, if we are thirsty, we can either go and get a drink of our choice ourselves or tell someone what we need and would like.  She could say which tv programme or toy she wanted.
My dream would be to provide her with the equipment and specialised programming and technology so that she may one day be able to communicate with us in some way. I couldn't imagine being unable to tell someone if I was sad, needed a drink or wanted a hug. The best iPad for her needs that will run the software needed is an iPad Pro 12.9”, with at least 512gb of memory. She will also need an armoured case to make sure she doesn’t accidentally break it, because Alyssa can sometimes throw toys. The assistive adaptive communication software will probably cost in the region of £400-500.  For her to do the same would be life changing. Please keep supporting Alyssa, let make this families dreams come true xxx