My name is Paul Johnston, I am a coach at Irlam Football Club in Greater Manchester, England, and uncle to Carmel Morgan age 13, my niece Carmel is a very keen and talented young footballer. In March this year, Carmel suffered a potentially life-changing and career-threatening injury when she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), sprained her medial collateral ligament (MCL) and damaged the meniscus in her right knee.

Carmel has played football since the age of 6, starting out at Winton Wanderers FC, and since then has represented Altrincham FC, Bolton Wanderers, Brooklands Dragons, Swinton FC and currently Irlam FC, Carmel was training with the development squad at Manchested United this last season when the injury occurred in a game for Brooklands Dragons. Carmel loves the game and would play wherever and whenever she could.

The injury occurred innocuously; whilst playing in a game, Carmel changed direction, unopposed, and her right knee gave way.

Carmel suffered the injury on the 19th of March 2022, over 4 months ago. We have received no indication from the NHS of a projected date for the surgey or that they are prepared to undertake the surgery at all. The NHS have only confirmed that surgery is required should Carmel wish to return to any form of football or sporting activity. We accept that there is a significant backlog of non-critical / non-life threatening operations within the NHS, which has left Carmel in a restrictive knee brace and unable to participate in any athletic activities. Carmel is an exceptional player; for her own physical and mental well-being, we are trying to aid Carmel in returning to playing the game she loves in the future.

We have taken the decision to pursue the operation privately. We have to date, incurred significant costs for surgical consultions, MRI scans, X-rays, pre-surgery physiotherapy and follow up consultations (all private). We are now at the stage where we have been offered a date of the 16th of August for private surgery, which we will initially fund through a long-term finance agreement with the private hospital to meet the projected surgery costs of £9,000 to 10,000.

We do not have private medical insurance, we have thought long and hard about setting up this page and have reluctantly decided to seek help in funding this surgery, please help us to crowd fund this procedure, make a considerable difference to Carmels life and her future, and help her to get back to playing football again.