Amelie’s Club Foot Journey

This is our beautiful, funny, sassy, little girl Amelie.

5 year old Amelie and her 6 year old brother Toby were born with almost identical right sided talipes, more commonly known as clubfoot. This condition causes the foot to turn upwards and inwards and resemble a golf club -hence the name.

Fortunately, the modern techniques for correcting this condition are minimally invasive and within a few months the feet can be remodelled using casts and manipulation to a “normal” position.

Amelie and Toby were both successfully corrected fairly early, and both wore boots and bars until they were 5 (similar to a retainer for teeth they wear them at night to prevent the feet relapsing)

They were both incredibly brave to bear the discomfort of these and the casts for so long but they did so with minimal fuss and sheer determination. (it also helped they are incredibly competitive with each other!)

Fast forward to last year, Amelie started complaining of pain in her affected foot. On closer examination it is obvious her foot has been turning back in meaning she now walks on the edge of that foot.

Her Consultant at Manchester children’s hospital has reviewed her in August and confirmed what we had feared, that Amelie will need some corrective surgery in the form of a tendon transfer.

This is where the surgeon moves the stronger tendon from the inside of the foot to the outside of the foot in the hopes it will pull the foot into the correct position. She will need to wear a cast for two weeks pre op and have around 6 weeks of recovery so she still has a long road ahead but the sooner she starts the easier the recovery will be, the longer she goes untreated the more complex the foot becomes to treat.

We were told in August Amelie would be placed on the “urgent” waiting list due to the severity of her relapse and the impact it is having on her life , and this list is approximately 3months long.

we are now well into February and the latest update we were given is that they can only tell us it will be in 2024 and nothing more.

Amelie is super resilient and a very proud and strong little girl, but she is often in severe pain and cannot run the same way as her friends anymore. She has learned to “skip hop” in a way that causes the least amount of pain for her.

The more days that pass the more often the periods of discomfort and pain and the more often she turns down activities with her friends which she knows will trigger it.

When I queried at the hospital how we could help with her pain we were told to give her paracetamol and ibuprofen daily.

The operation can, however, be carried out privately, I have enquired and we have been quoted approximately £8000 to include her pre op casts and anaesthetic. The best part is she could be seen as soon as early March!!!

Sadly we don’t have access to that sort of money right now. The idea of a go fund me has come from friends and family who have all expressed their wish to contribute in some way, and suggested if everyone contributed a little we could have the money in no time. We have never done a go fund me before and it’s not something we are taking lightly as we appreciate it is a huge amount of funds to try and raise. But we feel for Amelie’s sake we have to try.