Daisy charity football tournament & familyfun day

On 25th May this year, Daisy Doran, our little 9 year old sass queen, was rushed to hospital after collapsing at home.

She was taken to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, where she had a scan which confirmed there was a bleed on her brain. Daisy was taken down for surgery straight away, where the surgeons tried to drain the bleed. However, this was not working and they had to perform “life-saving surgery” where they removed her bone flap to evacuate as much of the bleed as possible. This was successful; her bone flap was replaced, and she was in a stable condition and was taken to ICU to recover. Daisy was fitted with a monitor in her head to monitor the pressure, which was at a normal figure. However, over the next couple of days, her pressure was creeping up, and 2 days later, on 27th May, her pressure had spiked to over 3 times the normal rate. She was taken down to surgery once again to be fitted with a drain however once again, this did not work and so her bone flap was removed again and was put in her own stomach to keep it alive and healthy, to allow her brain the space to swell and relieve the pressure, giving her the best possible chance and minimising the risk of potential brain damage. Daisy’s family did not know how much damage if any she may have suffered until she was weaned off her meds and woke up. Her bone flap is still in her stomach and will be put back in her head hopefully at the same time as her next surgery.

Thankfully, when Daisy was coming off her meds she started responding straight away with little hand squeezes, a cheeky middle finger up (allowed only to make sure she was understanding her family) and thumbs up for yes and shaking her finger for no! Daisy’s family was so relieved. She still had no movement in her left side but gradually, that came and she is now having physio to recover as best as she can. Her recovery so far has been nothing short of amazing and she has made incredible progress. Her strength and determination has been unbelievably inspiring! She is learning to walk again and learning to move her left hand and arm too. Daisy is currently awaiting an angiogram to confirm the cause of the bleed - a suspected AVM - and if there are any more AVM’s present. The outcome will determine the course of treatment needed to remove the AVM’s. Her family still don’t know whether she will make a full physical recovery, only time will tell, however cognitively she is functioning perfectly fine and they have their little sass queen back for sure!

Daisy has been so strong throughout these past couple of months, she has taken everything in her stride. She has been through so much - multiple brain surgeries, a piece of skull in her belly, shaved hair (important to every little girl!) and sadly, the loss of a very much loved family member - and still she is smiling and has a positive attitude every day. Words cannot express how unbelievably proud her family & friends are of her.

There is still a long road to recovery, and Daisy will need rehabilitation. So we are raising money to help towards whatever she needs.

We will be doing a charity football tournament on 25th September. All funds raised will help Daisy’s recovery