Hi , my name is Karen and I’m fundraising for my daughter Charlotte. Charlie was diagnosed aged 10 with scoliosis and had a spinal fusion a month after her 12th birthday. Whilst the spinal fusion was a complete success, it unfortunately led to vascular compression , resulting in superior mesenteric artery syndrome ( where the small intestines are compressed between two arteries) meaning she cannot eat to maintain life as the food cannot get through . Her left renal vein is also affected by the compression resulting in nutcracker syndrome . She is fed via a tube that goes past the compression, 14 hours a day, that whilst keeps her alive , does not help her pain, nausea and intermittent vomiting that leaves her bed bound and has been this way for the past 6 years. These compressions are extremely rare and there is no expert or experience in Scotland . Whilst there is a professor in London who has experience , we have been fighting since 2023 to get a cross border referral on the NHS after seeing the professor privately . Meanwhile , Charlie has no life . She is now 18, is bed bound, was unable to have an education since she has had the compressions , and constantly tells me she cannot do this anymore and just wants to be normal, have a life and friends.

our only hope now is to get her to the Philippines, where there is a surgeon from America who can perform an operation to literally save and change her life. In July this will be 7 years we have fought , watching our child in pain, nauseous, vomiting. fear of dying , and unable to leave her bed.

please, please , any help would be gratefully appreciated.