Mia's Fight To Keep Dancing With Scoliosis
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This is Mia, my 14 year old goddaughter. Her father died out of the blue nearly 2 years ago, at the age of 53, and now she also faces the very real possibility of losing her dream of being a professional dancer if we can’t raise the money she needs for pioneering spinal surgery by the middle of September.
Mia has been passionate about, and completely dedicated to dance in all its forms, all her life. She is insanely talented as the pictures show, and in ordinary times trains 5 days a week and has performed regularly in professional theatre productions.
But, she has scoliosis (curvature and rotation of the spine), which until now has been treated with a back brace to try and hold the curves as she grows and goes through puberty.
Over the last six months all her dance and performing arts classes were quickly transitioned to home via Zoom and her dedication to training has shone through despite nearly taking the ceiling light out many times with her long legs! Like many dancing teenagers who aspire to a career on the stage, absolutely nothing stops her moving and doing what she loves.
Two weeks ago she had an urgent appointment at Sheffield Children's Hospital as she knew her scoliosis was worsening and quickly. The x-ray is what they found. So her treatment plan has gone from "watch and wait" to "this needs correction surgery urgently".
Her only treatment/correction option in the UK on the NHS is called fusion surgery. This will correct the curve but will fuse her spine leaving parts of it fixed straight and rigid so that she can never dance again in the way she does now. She is distraught at the prospect of this and being unable to carry on dancing professionally.
She has been offered pioneering surgery on 25th September by one of the world’s leading spinal surgeons, Professor Dr Alanay in Istanbul, Turkey. This is the type of surgery that Simon Cowell paid for for Julia who performed on Britain's Got Talent - VBT: Vertebral Body Tethering. This procedure uses a tethering process that not only gives an immediate correction after surgery but also gently continues to correct any remaining curve by the time she finishes growing. It will keep her back in as natural state as possible and crucially, it will keep her back completely flexible.
She will be able to dance and pursue her hopes of a professional dance career, move normally and live a normal life. We are desperate to raise the money needed for her to have this life-changing surgery. I have committed to them both that I will do everything in my power to raise this money. Please, please help if you can. Thank you so much. Susie xx